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How to Design a Business Instead of Reacting to It · Success Is Not Convenient

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Hey everybody, it's Bernie Gallerani bringing you an episode of Success is Not Convenient.
0:04
SPEAKER_00: Here's the question for you today.
0:06
SPEAKER_00: All my business owner friends that are out there slaying the dragon, trying to make this work.
0:10
SPEAKER_00: Here's the question.
0:11
SPEAKER_00: And this is the title of my topic today is am I reacting to my business or am I intentionally designing it?
0:19
SPEAKER_00: Am I just reacting to the things that go on, or do I have a plan to sit down and design the business and have that business then be tailored to the kind of life that I want to have?
0:29
SPEAKER_00: See, most entrepreneurs, because they're business owners, they don't fail from a lack of effort.
0:35
SPEAKER_00: They fail because they spend their entire life reacting instead of designing their business.
0:41
SPEAKER_00: By the way, I'm guilty of that.
0:43
SPEAKER_00: My whole business came by accident.
0:45
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't even intentional.
0:46
SPEAKER_00: And the business really didn't succeed at the level that I would like to until I started figuring out how to design it.
0:52
SPEAKER_00: And when you design something, that actually makes it a little bit more fun to be truthful with you, versus just kind of reacting and having it happen by accident.
1:00
SPEAKER_00: And the difference between an average business person and a scalable business is usually not intelligence at all.
1:08
SPEAKER_00: It's usually intentionality.
1:11
SPEAKER_00: It's what is your planned intention for growth?
1:15
SPEAKER_00: Are you solving all the problems, right?
1:17
SPEAKER_00: A reactive business controls the owner.
1:20
SPEAKER_00: A designed business is controlled by the owner.
1:23
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to say this to you again.
1:24
SPEAKER_00: A reactive business is controlled, it controls the owner.
1:29
SPEAKER_00: So it controls like how the owner moves left and right based on what's being thrown at it.
1:33
SPEAKER_00: A designed business is controlled by the owner.
1:36
SPEAKER_00: So it controls the business.
1:37
SPEAKER_00: It's not controlled by the business.
1:39
SPEAKER_00: Keep that thought because we're going to go through that a little bit today.
1:42
SPEAKER_00: Okay, because as I've always said, you can have a job or you can have an ownership and something that you enjoy working and playing in every single day.
1:50
SPEAKER_00: I say the word playing because we should have fun in business and it should be a little bit of a game for us.
1:56
SPEAKER_00: And if it's um more of a pain, then you're probably being controlled by it.
2:00
SPEAKER_00: See, most business owners wake up every single day and immediately enter reaction mode.
2:06
SPEAKER_00: They're putting out fires, right?
2:08
SPEAKER_00: They're reacting to the calls and they're reacting to the employees and what's going on there, reacting to the low sales process.
2:15
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're having a bad month, bad quarter, bad six months, got bad year, whatever, right?
2:19
SPEAKER_00: They're reacting to the bad months and reacting to kind of the competition in the area.
2:24
SPEAKER_00: And they're even reacting to the emergencies that show up and they're reacting to the emotions that they have.
2:30
SPEAKER_00: And then after years of reacting, they look up and they realize one thing.
2:34
SPEAKER_00: I built a business, but I never designed a life.
2:38
SPEAKER_00: Guys, if I could ever say something to you, you know, I and I I've heard this recently, is you got to have fun with your life.
2:45
SPEAKER_00: You if you go into work every single day and you hate your job, something is wrong if you're in control of the business and it's becoming a burden to you.
2:53
SPEAKER_00: A lot of entrepreneurs are absolutely exhausted because they confuse movement with direction.
2:59
SPEAKER_00: They they they think that I'm getting up every day, I'm solving problems.
3:03
SPEAKER_00: That that's part of it is maybe solving some problems, but it also shouldn't be such a burden to us that we hate going to work.
3:10
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you're busy, but are you intentional in your process?
3:14
SPEAKER_00: But are you building?
3:16
SPEAKER_00: You are solving problems, but are you creating systems that prevent problems?
3:21
SPEAKER_00: See, that's the conversation today that we're having.
3:25
SPEAKER_00: We're having a conversation that says you're building a business, is it running you or is it driving you?
3:30
SPEAKER_00: I should say, is it running you or driving you crazy, right?
3:34
SPEAKER_00: Are you running the business or is it running you?
3:36
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's a good question.
3:38
SPEAKER_00: See the difference between reacting and designing, reacting is survival mode, right?
3:43
SPEAKER_00: Just how do I get through the day?
3:44
SPEAKER_00: How do I get to the day?
3:45
SPEAKER_00: Reactive business owners wait for problems before acting.
3:50
SPEAKER_00: They wait for the problems before acting.
3:53
SPEAKER_00: And they make emotional decisions.
3:56
SPEAKER_00: They operate with no long-term vision at all inside their company.
3:59
SPEAKER_00: They focus only on urgent issues.
4:01
SPEAKER_00: They feel like they're putting out fires all day long, right?
4:04
SPEAKER_00: They're constantly feeling overwhelmed with their business.
4:08
SPEAKER_00: Other times they allow circumstances to dictate the direction of the business.
4:12
SPEAKER_00: And I've been there for a lot of years, and I'm probably still there in some areas, but I'm starting to see a lot of blind spots in my life where that part is controlling me.
4:22
SPEAKER_00: I'm not controlling it.
4:24
SPEAKER_00: Where in your business is something controlling you?
4:26
SPEAKER_00: That might be a question that you need to really look at and say, is there something inside my business right now that I feel controlled by?
4:32
SPEAKER_00: What happens is their business, these entrepreneurs, their business becomes chaotic.
4:37
SPEAKER_00: It's stressful most of the time.
4:39
SPEAKER_00: It's always unpredictable.
4:41
SPEAKER_00: You don't know what's going to happen.
4:42
SPEAKER_00: I go through that sometimes.
4:44
SPEAKER_00: It's very emotionally draining.
4:46
SPEAKER_00: Are you are you in a place where your business is just you leave your business at the end of the day and you're just emotionally exhausted?
4:53
SPEAKER_00: By the way, I just want you to think about this.
4:56
SPEAKER_00: Because I I I've had a lot of those days.
4:58
SPEAKER_00: Could there be something wrong?
5:01
SPEAKER_00: You're feeling this way in your business, right?
5:04
SPEAKER_00: Reactive leaders are typically firefighters and they're always putting out firefight, fire all the time, always constantly putting out a fire.
5:12
SPEAKER_00: I've said if people ask me, Well, how was your day today?
5:14
SPEAKER_00: Man, I was putting out fires all day long.
5:16
SPEAKER_00: I gotta change my my approach and ask myself if I'm putting out fires, what's where is that going wrong?
5:21
SPEAKER_00: What what inside my system is not working properly?
5:24
SPEAKER_00: Right?
5:25
SPEAKER_00: Every day feels like what exploded today?
5:28
SPEAKER_00: Like, oh God, you know, what a day today, right?
5:30
SPEAKER_00: I want to quit my job.
5:31
SPEAKER_00: But I've had that where I'm like, man, I'm how much of this can I take, right?
5:34
SPEAKER_00: Uh blaming things like, why isn't this happening?
5:37
SPEAKER_00: Why don't I have the lead flow?
5:38
SPEAKER_00: Why are leads down?
5:39
SPEAKER_00: You know, why are sales not working?
5:41
SPEAKER_00: Um, why is cash tight right now?
5:44
SPEAKER_00: Right?
5:44
SPEAKER_00: The business owns them.
5:46
SPEAKER_00: They're they're just coming to work, they're like who the tail wags the dog, right?
5:50
SPEAKER_00: In this kind of situation, right?
5:52
SPEAKER_00: Us as the business owner are supposed to be the dog.
5:54
SPEAKER_00: The tail is our business, but yet our business totally dictates us.
5:58
SPEAKER_00: That's not how it's designed.
6:01
SPEAKER_00: Designing a vision for your company and designing a vision for your life, right?
6:05
SPEAKER_00: Intentional business owners think ahead.
6:08
SPEAKER_00: Are you planning ahead this year?
6:10
SPEAKER_00: Are you planning to how to solve problems you have today, but you haven't corrected those?
6:14
SPEAKER_00: So as you continue to keep growing within your business, are you solving problems, employee problems, commitment problems, uh, lead distribution problems, sales problems?
6:23
SPEAKER_00: Before they ever hit, are you trying to solve them?
6:25
SPEAKER_00: Because they're gonna happen.
6:27
SPEAKER_00: You got to think ahead, right?
6:28
SPEAKER_00: Build systems before problems actually happen.
6:32
SPEAKER_00: Create a culture that everybody thrives in, right?
6:36
SPEAKER_00: Design the culture, create it and design it.
6:38
SPEAKER_00: Forecast all the challenges ahead of time and protect your time and protect their time too.
6:45
SPEAKER_00: Make decisions based on long-term goals.
6:48
SPEAKER_00: Not, hey, I want to get through the day today.
6:50
SPEAKER_00: That's that's I've operated that way before.
6:52
SPEAKER_00: God, I just gotta get through today today, right?
6:54
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes I still do that, right?
6:56
SPEAKER_00: Designing means like I choose uh what this business becomes before the world chooses it for me.
7:03
SPEAKER_00: A business uh is tough.
7:06
SPEAKER_00: It's really tough.
7:06
SPEAKER_00: A really good friend of mine came into my office last week, week, and we were talking about different sales processes.
7:11
SPEAKER_00: She goes, What most people don't understand, and she's a very successful uh owner up in Kentucky, and she says, But people really don't understand in order to get to where we're at, we've had to grind on chew on rocks for a long time.
7:24
SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
7:24
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine chewing on rocks?
7:26
SPEAKER_00: Like how painful that must be.
7:28
SPEAKER_00: That's sometimes what it's like being a business owner, but you start realizing that you don't have to choose the rocks, you don't have to grind on them.
7:36
SPEAKER_00: You just have to plan.
7:38
SPEAKER_00: That's called leadership.
7:39
SPEAKER_00: That's called running a business, not having a business run you.
7:42
SPEAKER_00: Many entrepreneurs build businesses accidentally.
7:45
SPEAKER_00: I did that.
7:46
SPEAKER_00: The growth happens faster than the structure.
7:49
SPEAKER_00: That was me, right?
7:50
SPEAKER_00: I had those things where I didn't really plan it, but it kind of happened that way.
7:54
SPEAKER_00: And once I started realizing it was here, I needed to get myself uh figured out because the business was here and I didn't even realize it was showed up.
8:01
SPEAKER_00: And so I had to change who I was.
8:03
SPEAKER_00: I had to mature as a business owner.
8:05
SPEAKER_00: My uh mentor always says, Do you have business maturity?
8:09
SPEAKER_00: Here's the question Do you have business maturity?
8:12
SPEAKER_00: Because the bigger my business gets and the more I think about it, the more I plan, the more business maturity I develop.
8:18
SPEAKER_00: I don't even know how I operated the business back in those days.
8:21
SPEAKER_00: I didn't really know much, right?
8:24
SPEAKER_00: So the question that I have for you is Are you really thinking about your business?
8:28
SPEAKER_00: Right?
8:29
SPEAKER_00: Do you have a business right now that your systems are non-existent?
8:32
SPEAKER_00: There's no accountability at all in your structure.
8:35
SPEAKER_00: You don't have any sort of a recruiting process with your group.
8:38
SPEAKER_00: I worked for a broker uh recently, we'll just go back 15, 20 years, who didn't really have a recruiting process.
8:46
SPEAKER_00: And the business suffered tremendously, I think.
8:49
SPEAKER_00: I'm not trying to throw this person under the bus, but um I thought that they did a very poor job at recruiting, right?
8:55
SPEAKER_00: Hiring good people inside the company, hiring good people, not people, good people, good quality, hardworking people who care about the business, right?
9:06
SPEAKER_00: Also, are we planning our finances?
9:08
SPEAKER_00: Are we doing really good financial planning?
9:11
SPEAKER_00: Do we have good standards?
9:14
SPEAKER_00: Do we have uh a plan for our cultural design?
9:17
SPEAKER_00: So eventually growth in your company will uh create pain if you don't have all these things figured out.
9:23
SPEAKER_00: The business grows, but in internally it starts breaking down.
9:27
SPEAKER_00: You guys have a business like that right now where it sounded really great when you started it, it was kind of great at times, but now it's painful.
9:34
SPEAKER_00: That's why some people secretly just fear growing.
9:37
SPEAKER_00: You know, I just did a talk a few minutes ago about complacency and growth with my team.
9:42
SPEAKER_00: I was leading a call.
9:44
SPEAKER_00: Some people just get fearful of growth because they think that growth creates more problems.
9:50
SPEAKER_00: And if you don't solve the problems, growth is going to create more problems.
9:54
SPEAKER_00: But what if you anticipated the problems while anticipating the growth and you solve them as you are moving forward?
10:01
SPEAKER_00: Then you suddenly have a business that's very pleasurable to own because growth exposes weak design.
10:06
SPEAKER_00: So if you don't think ahead about the things that could happen, you do have a weak design.
10:14
SPEAKER_00: Some entrepreneurs actually become addicted to chaos, they they like it.
10:18
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm talking about, right?
10:19
SPEAKER_00: Because you've seen those people that just love chaos in their life.
10:23
SPEAKER_00: Oh my God, oh my god, we're right.
10:25
SPEAKER_00: I I know people, a lot of people that actually thrive on the problems of their business.
10:31
SPEAKER_00: Why would you want to do that?
10:33
SPEAKER_00: Don't you want to have a peaceful, fun, loving life that produces a tremendous amount of income to give you and your family the kind of life that you've always wanted to have?
10:41
SPEAKER_00: See, because reacting feels productive to a lot of people.
10:45
SPEAKER_00: Oh, you're not gonna believe the drama that went on at work today.
10:47
SPEAKER_00: You're not gonna believe my friend and what's going on with them.
10:49
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I don't really care, and it's none of my business.
10:52
SPEAKER_00: Don't tell me the story because I don't really care.
10:54
SPEAKER_00: Right?
10:55
SPEAKER_00: That's that's for drama people.
10:56
SPEAKER_00: I want to focus on positive, motivated entrepreneurs and employees who want to come to work and do their.
11:04
SPEAKER_00: We don't need drama in our life.
11:06
SPEAKER_00: Right?
11:07
SPEAKER_00: Answering the emergencies of some of us create a massive level of adrenaline, like, ooh, this is awesome.
11:15
SPEAKER_00: I get to get in the middle of drama today.
11:17
SPEAKER_00: Oh, please, people, stop.
11:20
SPEAKER_00: Constant urgency makes people feel important and really it's draining emotionally.
11:25
SPEAKER_00: But urgency is not always progress.
11:28
SPEAKER_00: Some business owners never slow down enough to even think about what it takes to build their business.
11:34
SPEAKER_00: They never build any systems, they never create a process that makes a difference, and they never train people correctly.
11:40
SPEAKER_00: They just go, there's your seat.
11:42
SPEAKER_00: Good luck to you.
11:43
SPEAKER_00: Write this one down.
11:44
SPEAKER_00: If you have employees, constantly inspect what you expect out of your people.
11:50
SPEAKER_00: Every department, every person should have a level of uh accountability so they have a level of expectation to produce results for that seed.
11:59
SPEAKER_00: Never step back from once you train somebody and just think that they're gonna do their job.
12:03
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's that's their job.
12:04
SPEAKER_00: No, everybody deserves to have leadership.
12:08
SPEAKER_00: Be a leader, be somebody who has intention for building a really great company.
12:13
SPEAKER_00: They always say, I don't have time to build a system.
12:16
SPEAKER_00: Of course, you have nothing but time because if not, if you don't build it now, you're gonna be in the middle of chaos later.
12:22
SPEAKER_00: Then you're never gonna have time to build the system.
12:24
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna burn out and you're gonna want to fold up and run home with a little blanket and cry because things aren't going the way you want them to go.
12:31
SPEAKER_00: And that's just because it's poor ownership, it's just poor planning.
12:36
SPEAKER_00: See, employees interrupt them 50 times a day.
12:38
SPEAKER_00: What's your system for that?
12:40
SPEAKER_00: Problems continually to repeat.
12:42
SPEAKER_00: I was meeting a uh a team uh developer a few weeks ago when I was on a business trip, and I love what she said.
12:49
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna repeat this one because this is really hers.
12:51
SPEAKER_00: This is Nikki's, it's not mine, but I love what she said.
12:54
SPEAKER_00: And she said, it's like the game whack-a-mole is you you hit the little mole pops up in the hole and you hit it down, and what does it do?
13:03
SPEAKER_00: It pops up somewhere else, and you hit it down, and what it does is it pops up somewhere else.
13:07
SPEAKER_00: And problems continue to keep repeating, and you're just doing this constantly all day long, trying to figure out why this problem continues to keep showing up.
13:16
SPEAKER_00: The same mistakes happen all the time.
13:18
SPEAKER_00: The team lacks clarity, you lack clarity, you lack discipline for your employees.
13:24
SPEAKER_00: Stress levels start to increase.
13:26
SPEAKER_00: And why does this happen?
13:27
SPEAKER_00: Because reacting steals the future of your business.
13:32
SPEAKER_00: Designing creates freedom.
13:35
SPEAKER_00: Don't you guys want freedom?
13:36
SPEAKER_00: I'm a believer in freedom.
13:38
SPEAKER_00: I'm a believer that you build a business so the business runs without you if you choose to.
13:43
SPEAKER_00: If you have a business, oh, I'm a business owner.
13:46
SPEAKER_00: Fair enough.
13:47
SPEAKER_00: You're probably just that, a business owner.
13:50
SPEAKER_00: But are you an entrepreneur?
13:51
SPEAKER_00: Because those are two different things.
13:53
SPEAKER_00: Well, I what does that mean?
13:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I own a bunch of businesses, but here's the question: does the business run you or do you run the business?
13:58
SPEAKER_00: Right?
13:58
SPEAKER_00: This is what intentional design actually looks like is designing your time.
14:03
SPEAKER_00: Most entrepreneurs let the day attack them.
14:06
SPEAKER_00: Design leaders protect their time.
14:09
SPEAKER_00: They protect their thinking time, they protect their planning time, they protect their recruiting time.
14:15
SPEAKER_00: They even block out family time.
14:17
SPEAKER_00: Say, listen, I got to be home by five o'clock, six o'clock, seven o'clock, eight o'clock, whatever your time is.
14:21
SPEAKER_00: I want to be home, spend time with my kids.
14:23
SPEAKER_00: Listen, we do, we don't work for work.
14:25
SPEAKER_00: We work to have a better life for our family.
14:28
SPEAKER_00: Right?
14:29
SPEAKER_00: Do you have time for your health?
14:31
SPEAKER_00: You go into the gym.
14:32
SPEAKER_00: I remember there was times when I was building the business, I was working a lot of hours, crazy hours, like I don't have time to go to the gym.
14:36
SPEAKER_00: What a horrible mistake that was.
14:38
SPEAKER_00: Nothing's more important.
14:39
SPEAKER_00: What good does it do to make all this money if you're not healthy enough to enjoy it?
14:43
SPEAKER_00: See, if everything is urgent, then nothing is intentional.
14:46
SPEAKER_00: Be intentional for your goals.
14:48
SPEAKER_00: Your calendar reveals whether you're reacting or designing your calendar.
14:53
SPEAKER_00: Designing culture.
14:55
SPEAKER_00: Culture happens whether you create it or not.
14:58
SPEAKER_00: It's showing up whether you think you have a good culture, bad culture.
15:02
SPEAKER_00: It's all based on how you've designed your company.
15:05
SPEAKER_00: What behavior is rewarded inside of your business?
15:08
SPEAKER_00: What behavior is tolerated?
15:10
SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh, guys.
15:11
SPEAKER_00: I have had this happen to me where I'm just looking at banging my hand on a table, and I finally said to myself, well, it's my fault because I keep the person around.
15:20
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how to even change the way they think.
15:24
SPEAKER_00: You can't change the way people think.
15:27
SPEAKER_00: What standards do you have that are clear with your people?
15:29
SPEAKER_00: What expectations exist?
15:31
SPEAKER_00: Are you a reactive leader?
15:34
SPEAKER_00: You avoid hard conversations and let poor behavior kind of slide?
15:39
SPEAKER_00: Do you create inconsistencies in your business?
15:41
SPEAKER_00: See, define leaders define standards early.
15:44
SPEAKER_00: They communicate expectations very clearly.
15:46
SPEAKER_00: They protect culture aggressively.
15:49
SPEAKER_00: That's not going to happen in my company.
15:50
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, you like Phil this way, but you got to go.
15:52
SPEAKER_00: I'm protecting the whole crew, the whole clan, right?
15:55
SPEAKER_00: There's one always a bad apple somewhere, and you gotta boot them out, right?
15:59
SPEAKER_00: Are you designing your financial stability?
16:02
SPEAKER_00: Are you are you a reactive owner who spends emotionally?
16:08
SPEAKER_00: Guilty.
16:08
SPEAKER_00: I've done that.
16:09
SPEAKER_00: Hope revenue solves the problem.
16:11
SPEAKER_00: Guilty.
16:12
SPEAKER_00: Don't prepare for all the downturns that a business has.
16:15
SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you, if it's good, it's gonna eventually get bad, right?
16:17
SPEAKER_00: There's always ups and downs, right?
16:20
SPEAKER_00: Good owners, they build massive reserves, man.
16:22
SPEAKER_00: They plan, they build reserves.
16:24
SPEAKER_00: That's where I got to.
16:25
SPEAKER_00: It's like, okay, I gotta have X amount of money in the bank, man.
16:27
SPEAKER_00: You gotta have a bunch of money over here in case you have a rainy day, which you're gonna have a rainy day, right?
16:32
SPEAKER_00: You gotta forecast the slow season.
16:33
SPEAKER_00: When do you have slow seasons?
16:34
SPEAKER_00: I have two really hot seasons, two quarters.
16:36
SPEAKER_00: The other two are a little bit slow.
16:38
SPEAKER_00: I have to plan for those.
16:39
SPEAKER_00: Understand your margins, understand what you can get away with.
16:43
SPEAKER_00: Make all your investments into your business intentionally, don't just happenstance it.
16:48
SPEAKER_00: A design business can survive any sort of pressure because you plan on it.
16:54
SPEAKER_00: You plan on the pressure so when it shows up, you're not shocked.
16:57
SPEAKER_00: A reactive business uh panics under any sort of pressure.
17:01
SPEAKER_00: Don't be that person.
17:02
SPEAKER_00: Plan on it.
17:02
SPEAKER_00: If you think it's really great in certain parts of the year, then slay that dragon as hard as you can and then take all that money and put it over here for a rainy day.
17:11
SPEAKER_00: Right?
17:11
SPEAKER_00: Uh really work us, work on like designing lead opportunities.
17:15
SPEAKER_00: Like, oh, well, the leads are really bad, or this is really bad, or this isn't going well.
17:18
SPEAKER_00: Well, plan it.
17:19
SPEAKER_00: Plan that it's going to be that way.
17:22
SPEAKER_00: This is massive for entrepreneurs.
17:24
SPEAKER_00: Reactive marketing, right?
17:25
SPEAKER_00: Leads are low, sales kind of drop because leads are low, everyone starts to panic.
17:30
SPEAKER_00: Uh, they did like they they have a design marketing plan, they have a predictable system, they have a consistent outreach.
17:36
SPEAKER_00: Those are the kinds of entrepreneurs that really understand and plan all that, right?
17:40
SPEAKER_00: Long-term branding.
17:41
SPEAKER_00: They follow up with the structures that they've they've written out.
17:45
SPEAKER_00: They have measurable KPIs.
17:47
SPEAKER_00: What are your KPIs?
17:48
SPEAKER_00: Well, what do you mean, Bernie?
17:50
SPEAKER_00: What are your measurable goals that you've set that you want to achieve by a certain time or date?
17:55
SPEAKER_00: The design business doesn't wait for desperation before prospecting.
18:00
SPEAKER_00: No.
18:00
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't.
18:01
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to say this again.
18:02
SPEAKER_00: The design business doesn't wait for desperation before prospecting.
18:07
SPEAKER_00: You prospect and lead generate opportunities for people while the business is good.
18:11
SPEAKER_00: See, I get a chance to coach agents all the time, every single day.
18:15
SPEAKER_00: And it is astonishing how they will work, work, work.
18:18
SPEAKER_00: And once they get a little money, they take their foot off the gas, and then they're broke again, and they work constantly in this peaks and valley mental mentality.
18:25
SPEAKER_00: Why are you doing that to yourself?
18:28
SPEAKER_00: So here's a question for my entrepreneurs.
18:30
SPEAKER_00: Entrepreneurs must ask themselves this one really important question.
18:34
SPEAKER_00: And these are powerful reflections on you.
18:38
SPEAKER_00: Okay, let me do this again.
18:40
SPEAKER_00: Did I intentionally build my current life or slowly drift into the position I'm in?
18:45
SPEAKER_00: Am I controlling my business or managing constant emergencies all the time?
18:50
SPEAKER_00: Do I have systems or I just have habits?
18:52
SPEAKER_00: It's a good one, right?
18:54
SPEAKER_00: Like, do I have a thing in place that I feel solid on, or just by habits, this is what I ended up with?
19:00
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine by habits you just ended up with a great business?
19:03
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine what it could be if you actually planned it at a high level?
19:08
SPEAKER_00: What problems keep repeating because I refuse to design a solution?
19:14
SPEAKER_00: If my business doubled tomorrow, what would completely break?
19:18
SPEAKER_00: That's a good one, right?
19:19
SPEAKER_00: I did a podcast, I don't know, a few months ago that says if I doubled or tripled my business, what would break first?
19:25
SPEAKER_00: Right?
19:26
SPEAKER_00: It's a good thing, good thing to think.
19:27
SPEAKER_00: Like, well, I couldn't think about doubling my business because I wouldn't be able to handle it.
19:30
SPEAKER_00: Well, do you want to have a doubled business?
19:32
SPEAKER_00: Because it's not that you can't double your business, it's that you don't have a the thought to do it.
19:36
SPEAKER_00: But if you do decide to do it, you're fearful because you're like, well, how do I do it?
19:40
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's not just going to show up.
19:42
SPEAKER_00: It's not.
19:43
SPEAKER_00: You have to plan it, you have to execute it, you have to think about it.
19:48
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
19:48
SPEAKER_00: I want you to write this down.
19:49
SPEAKER_00: I want you to write down every issue that repeats itself weekly, every problem that continues to keep showing up, every interruption, every frustration.
19:59
SPEAKER_00: Write it down when it happens.
20:01
SPEAKER_00: Every bottleneck, so something that's just slowing things down because you don't have a system in place.
20:06
SPEAKER_00: Then I want you to ask yourself this question: why does this keep happening to my business, right?
20:11
SPEAKER_00: Why do I have to keep hitting the frigging mole down in the hole?
20:14
SPEAKER_00: Why do I have to keep pounding on that thing?
20:16
SPEAKER_00: Because I haven't figured out how to solve the darn thing from continued to keep jumping up.
20:21
SPEAKER_00: Most recurring problems exist because no systems exist.
20:26
SPEAKER_00: That is so true.
20:27
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I hate to admit it, but I have those things in my company today.
20:30
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, it's because I'm I'm weak in a lot of areas and I have to figure out how to continue to be a strong leader and plan.
20:37
SPEAKER_00: The expectations in the company are unclear.
20:40
SPEAKER_00: The training in some of those areas is extremely weak.
20:43
SPEAKER_00: And that was something that I've identified with with some issues that I have is my leadership in that particular area is faulty.
20:50
SPEAKER_00: The accountability for some of the people that I work with is inconsistent.
20:54
SPEAKER_00: The repeated problems are usually design failures on my part.
20:58
SPEAKER_00: That's my job as the CEO and the owner is to create designs that work inside the company.
21:03
SPEAKER_00: So here's a thought.
21:05
SPEAKER_00: What if you shut your phone off?
21:07
SPEAKER_00: What if you stopped reacting to things right away so you can stop being reactive and be more insolving, right?
21:14
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you don't really have a lot of meetings because meetings really are usually not that productive, be honest with you.
21:21
SPEAKER_00: I I have, I'm just gonna say this.
21:23
SPEAKER_00: Uh, some people love meetings.
21:24
SPEAKER_00: I think meetings are necessary, but they've got to be short and concise.
21:27
SPEAKER_00: They don't need to be long, right?
21:29
SPEAKER_00: What's breaking right now?
21:31
SPEAKER_00: What needs structure?
21:33
SPEAKER_00: Look, look at your business right now and say, what structure do I need?
21:36
SPEAKER_00: Where do you feel you should have some delegation or you should delegate some things out to other people?
21:41
SPEAKER_00: What should be automated?
21:42
SPEAKER_00: Guys, with AI today, do you know how much automation you can do inside your companies?
21:46
SPEAKER_00: Let's pull our head out of the sand and start realizing that there's all these great systems with AI that can help us run our business on a much higher level.
21:54
SPEAKER_00: What are you avoiding to learn?
21:56
SPEAKER_00: Most business owners never stop long enough to even think strategically.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Why?
22:01
SPEAKER_00: You need to build before you actually need it.
22:03
SPEAKER_00: Reactive people hire when desperate.
22:06
SPEAKER_00: Design leaders actually recruit early.
22:08
SPEAKER_00: Reactive people market when it's slow, and design leaders market consistently.
22:14
SPEAKER_00: Reactive people fix culture after it's damaged something.
22:18
SPEAKER_00: And design leaders create standards up front because they plan.
22:23
SPEAKER_00: The best entrepreneurs solve the future problems before they ever show up, before they ever come about.
22:29
SPEAKER_00: They think about it.
22:30
SPEAKER_00: They're like, okay, I got to solve this because this is going to happen.
22:32
SPEAKER_00: So what we do when we do a plan or a switch or a change, we sit down as a management team and go, okay, we want to change this.
22:37
SPEAKER_00: Let's put our mind in the eyes of the people who work with our company.
22:41
SPEAKER_00: Let's get all the objections.
22:43
SPEAKER_00: And we fire objections at each other as a management team.
22:46
SPEAKER_00: And then we try to solve them before we have it.
22:48
SPEAKER_00: So when we get the objection, when we announce the change, we have the solution.
22:52
SPEAKER_00: See, guys, if you plan it ahead of time, it makes everything work more seamlessly and you have a better business.
23:00
SPEAKER_00: Designing requires some discomfort on your part because intentional design forces hard decisions, a better structure in your business, a higher level of accountability, a better delegation system, letting go of control, long-term thinking, reacting is emotional.
23:21
SPEAKER_00: Designing is disciplined.
23:23
SPEAKER_00: Designing is disciplined.
23:25
SPEAKER_00: That's why many business owners stay reactive because intentional leadership is mentally harder.
23:32
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to say this again so you guys understand it.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: This is why many business owners stay reactive, is because intentional leadership is mentally harder.
23:41
SPEAKER_00: Here's the thing we need to understand in all of this is that if we don't sit there and look at how we structure a business that's going to double itself, and let's say in this particular case, if we don't really look at that as the as an issue, then you are going to have all sorts of problems.
23:55
SPEAKER_00: And those, what do they say, like the whack-a-mole, right?
23:57
SPEAKER_00: That's going to keep popping up because we hadn't really thought about what the ripple effect of it all was would be.
24:03
SPEAKER_00: Imagine trying to build a house while constantly putting out fires on the inside of it.
24:08
SPEAKER_00: Fires just keep popping up, right?
24:10
SPEAKER_00: That's how most entrepreneurs operate their business today.
24:14
SPEAKER_00: They never stop to create a plan.
24:17
SPEAKER_00: They never really build a solid foundation.
24:19
SPEAKER_00: They never really think about the level of structure, the strength of the structure that it needs to be.
24:24
SPEAKER_00: We all start everything when we're building a house with a blueprint, right?
24:27
SPEAKER_00: And you put it all on paper and you look at it and go, this won't work, this won't work, this won't work, this will work, this won't work, right?
24:33
SPEAKER_00: So are you are you putting it on a blueprint to see if it'll work or not work, right?
24:38
SPEAKER_00: What sort of stability does the idea or the product or the business really have?
24:42
SPEAKER_00: See what happens with most is they just re-keep reacting to the smoke that's coming from the house, but pretty soon the house is going to burn down.
24:50
SPEAKER_00: Guys, I had a situation once where I had a boat that started with a little bit of smoke, and I turned I was all nonchalant and trying to figure out where the smoke was coming from.
24:59
SPEAKER_00: And before I knew it, the whole thing caught fire and the boat burned to the ground.
25:03
SPEAKER_00: That wasn't fun to go through.
25:04
SPEAKER_00: And so here's the thing we need to understand is how do we prevent your business from burning to the ground?
25:12
SPEAKER_00: Eventually, exhaustion becomes the business model for most of these types of people.
25:16
SPEAKER_00: And you don't want to put yourself running a business is supposed to be joyful.
25:20
SPEAKER_00: And the question is, if we don't plan it the right way, then what we're doing is we're stuck with trying to constantly put out fires, and then that's exhausting.
25:28
SPEAKER_00: Your business today is a reflection of what you intentionally designed or what you maybe tolerated by default.
25:37
SPEAKER_00: Most entrepreneurs don't really need more motivation.
25:41
SPEAKER_00: I think most of us are pretty motivated.
25:43
SPEAKER_00: They don't need more hype or more activity.
25:47
SPEAKER_00: What they really need, what these entrepreneurs really need is a level of clarity, a strong structure within their business, systems that actually work, standards that make sense, a vision that is so clear everybody can see it.
26:03
SPEAKER_00: Because freedom is not created through reacting, freedom is designed.
26:08
SPEAKER_00: Your income is designed, your culture is designed, your growth is designed, your stress level is designed, your future is designed.
26:21
SPEAKER_00: If you do all of that, you're gonna have a fantastic business.
26:25
SPEAKER_00: Don't neglect it.
26:26
SPEAKER_00: The hardest truth entrepreneurs uh face is if you don't intentionally design your business, chaos will design it for you.
26:35
SPEAKER_00: You don't want chaos to design your business.
26:37
SPEAKER_00: So ask yourself this question Am I building intentionally or am I just simply surviving professionally?
26:44
SPEAKER_00: Those are two completely different lives, and only one of them creates freedom.
26:50
SPEAKER_00: Just one.
26:51
SPEAKER_00: So the question we need to ask ourselves is are you building a business to create freedom for yourself?
26:57
SPEAKER_00: Are you creating a business that potentially is going to come crumbling down and burn into ash because we're overwhelmed, we're frustrated, and we're exhausted.
27:08
SPEAKER_00: Guys, I really hope that you found a lot of value in this today.
27:12
SPEAKER_00: I know there's a lot here, but remember success doesn't happen by accident.
27:17
SPEAKER_00: It's purposeful, it's intentional.
27:20
SPEAKER_00: And if you're doing something that has showed up by accident, that's really great.
27:24
SPEAKER_00: But at some point, if it doesn't have a designed plan, it will come crumbling down.
27:29
SPEAKER_00: I hope we all have found some level of interest and value in this.
27:33
SPEAKER_00: And if you if it did, thank you for paying attention today.
27:36
SPEAKER_00: And uh hit the little like button and the subscribe button.
27:39
SPEAKER_00: And if you have any comments, I'd love, if possible, to hear any of your thoughts or ideas.
27:44
SPEAKER_00: I've received many people who have shared with me some of the things that they feel they would like to hear from me, and I actually record those.
27:51
SPEAKER_00: So feel free to you know write down and let me know what you'd like to hear.
27:54
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much, and hope everybody has a great day.