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Navigating the Tides: Business Owners Confronting Challenges · Business Roundtable

0:01
Well, hello everybody. My name is David Carr here, welcoming you back
0:05
to the Business Roundtable podcast. It is the new year. We're in the
0:09
first week of January here and I'm joined with some great colleagues. For those
0:14
that you are joining me for the first time and for us, we'll do
0:17
brief introductions again. I'm David Carr with Steward your Business, focusing on overall
0:22
organizational help, helping leaders and their lead themselves and their team. So that's
0:28
my overall focus is that aspect of business. I'll throw it to Stacy to
0:33
introduce herself. All right, welcome and thank you so Stacy Kinoshina, I
0:39
am a business consultant and resource specialist focusing on strategies to help business address their
0:44
workforce concerns and their cash flow. So excellent, Thanks Stacy. Welcome back
0:50
dot C. We had a great conversation last week. Welcome back, Thank
0:53
you, thank you for the invite to Curtis Scotford here. We're Mergers and
0:58
Acquisitions, a consulting firm. We helped build businesses more profitable and enjoyable to
1:08
run, but more importantly sellable, and that's what we do. But thank
1:12
you, thanks, thanks for coming back. Bill. We got you back.
1:17
Yeah, I know last week we tried to get you off technical difficulties,
1:19
but you're back. Welcome. Go ahead and introduce yourself difficulties. My
1:25
name is Bill Hatch. I am a leadership guide and podcaster. H You
1:29
can pride my podcasts under the Bald Spots Productions label. Uh and uh.
1:38
Yeah, and I'm glad to be back too. Yeah, we're glad to
1:42
have you. And we've got Luke here. Luke and I have known each
1:44
other for quite a while. We're glad to have you. Luke. Go
1:46
ahead and introduce yourself to the audience. Sure, thank you, David,
1:49
appreciate being on. You're looking forward to seeing what I can learn and join
1:53
in on this great conversation. So Luke Kibler, owner and founder of Vantage
1:57
Insurance Solutions. We specialize in retirement planning and wealth strategization, helping people outset
2:04
market volatility and risk when it comes to planning out their financial goals and achieving
2:08
that, whether that's in business or in their personal life. That great,
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Thanks, Luke. Yeah, and we're we're we have got a great topic
2:19
tonight. It's we're building off what we talked about last week regarding planning,
2:23
which is all really important to successful business, but inevitably things don't go to
2:30
plan and we have obstacles or challenges that arise. And so our focus in
2:36
this episode tonight, as we're sharing with you guys, or as you whenever
2:39
you get to listen to this this is is this what do you do as
2:45
a business owner when you have these challenges that inevitably come up? And oftentimes
2:51
we plan for the best case scenario, but it doesn't always turn out that
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way. And so we're going to be leaning in onto all of these business
2:58
owners tonight to share their personal experiences insights to help you, as another business
3:04
owner or leader in an organization, plan and prepare for those challenges that will
3:08
inevitably be coming your way. So I'm excited to get into that with you
3:15
guys tonight. You guys are all seasoned. I think we're all passionate about
3:20
helping individuals and business owners grow and face these challenges. So some of the
3:28
ones, and and we'll dive into these a little deeper, but some of
3:30
the ones that come to mind for me at least is you know, economic
3:36
is definitely one and and that we face in changing times, and Luke,
3:40
you've just talked about that financials, personal and and and as as the company
3:46
we look at, you know, market competitions, technology people, there's a
3:51
lot of there's a lot of different ones in there, so we're gonna hit
3:53
on some of them in this this episode. And and I was talking to
3:55
Stacey earlier. Honestly, we don't have enough time to go into all of
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these and eat depth, but we're probably gonna have follow up episodes. You're
4:01
gonna want to come back and hear on those topics. So if there's one
4:05
that resonates with you or you want to hear more, we want to make
4:09
sure you comment when you're listening to this. We'd love to hear from you
4:14
and get your feedback. So out of those, I'll start with one money
4:20
cash flow. We talked about this before. Like you said in the beginning,
4:24
they see economic fluctuations, they inevitably come to a business for various reasons,
4:33
and if you're not prepared or planning for that, it can it can
4:38
actually kill a business if you're not, you know, or certainly depress the
4:43
business for a time until it can actually get back on at speed. So
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I'll throw it out there, and and maybe I'll just start with you,
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Curtis first, because we talked about planning last last episode and just thinking about,
4:56
you know, how do you deal with this as a business owner,
4:58
particularly if you're looking to get it right. You want to make sure that
5:00
it looks the best, it's the most profitable, it's enticing, and how
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do you handle that when those impacts inevitably come or prepare for them? What's
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what? Just there's a lot of different aspects there, Curtis, from mindset
5:15
to tactical things. But I love to get your thoughts on that as a
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business owner. You know that there's just so many As you mentioned, there's
5:25
just so many pieces here. But what I've what I personally used in my
5:30
business and and I even help others, is of course that positive mindset that
5:36
you mentioned. I call it a really mind shift because sometimes when it's a
5:44
mindset, we're set in a ways and so we have to shift our the
5:48
way we're doing things. But I think the biggest thing in what I teach
5:55
and then what I in my businesses is to think big. And there's a
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great book. I can't remember the author of it. Probably some of you
6:03
probably read it before but you have to think your goal or your business has
6:10
to be bigger than you, yourself and even your team. That goal you
6:16
have to think still big. And some people think, you know, you
6:20
don't think too big, but I kind of disagree with that. I mean,
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because if you can, if you can think big, then you're going
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to whatever obstacles comes your way, You're going to find a way to solve
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them. That's why we're creatures of creativity. I mean, they come our
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way for a reason and we just have to find a solution. I was
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just talking to a business owner today. That's why you get paid the big
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bucks. You're a problem solver, so problems come. Be a problem solver
6:50
and just think big. So that's kind of what our philosophy is here at
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Cocker a consultant. That's great Oxually, when those challenges come, you've got
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to had that bigger goal in mind. That's what I'm hearing you say.
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If you're small or what is that? What's that saying? You're playing not
7:09
to lose versus playing to win? Correct? Correct? So Bill, Bill
7:15
you you, I want to get you your thoughts here. Yeah, Well,
7:18
Doxy said something that that really hit with me about mindset. You know,
7:25
you get set in your your ways, which is why, which is
7:30
why I always teach smarter goals instead of just smart goals. My my second
7:38
R is reevaluable. You must be able to reevaluate those goals as different things
7:45
come in. If you get set in your ways, then something comes along
7:49
that's different and makes it you so that you can't do that anymore. Well,
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you're going to fail. You're you're planning to fail, and uh so
8:00
you need to you need to set up your set yourself up in advance for
8:05
being able to be flexible, to be able to reevaluate these these goals and
8:13
plans that you have. That's great. I think that's an important bill,
8:16
and I'd love to get comments from any of you on this because I've done
8:20
this in business where you fluctuations. You have a service or a product that
8:24
you're offering, and that product is the market because its market too, but
8:28
shifted or the value is shifted, so that offering now, like you're saying,
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Bill, you're reevaluating. It Once was maybe profitable and worthwhile, but
8:37
to continue to do that is actually not no longer financially viable anymore. And
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you have to make some hard decisions sometimes a business owner because there's been a
8:46
shift in the marketplace for different reasons, or there's different value in there.
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Any thoughts maybe Stacy or Luke on that, Why don't you guys want to
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jump in? Sure, I'd be happy to or Stacy, You're welcome to
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go first. Well, you know, I was. You know, when
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it comes to challenges in business, and we can break them down into different
9:07
different areas. And I like the fact that we started with mindset and and
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as Doxy said, thinking big and being flexible, because I think that that
9:18
could be a killer in any business. So any situation that we bring out
9:22
there, whether it be cash flow challenges, whether it be workforce challenges,
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whether it be systems challenges, you have all these different areas and in order
9:30
for you to break away from from stale thinking or thinking, that's not where
9:35
to get you. It's going to keep you in the same place and not
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allow you to to pivot as we you know, the word during COVID was
9:43
businesses had to pivot. You have to be flexible and you have to be
9:46
willing to. I think think outside the box and I think having that creative
9:52
mindset allows you to be able to bend and move and uh, and you
9:58
know, to find creative ways to bring out creativity as an entrepreneur, as
10:03
a business owner to be able to pivot in those areas. But you're saying,
10:07
I hear, that's what I kind of you, Stacey is like you
10:09
have to bend a little bit and be able to like, oh, it's
10:11
only got to be this way. But you're like, oh, look it's
10:13
already shifted or it's moved. You have to you have to be able to
10:18
pivot. It could be even overnight with COVID, and when COVID happened and
10:22
there was a shutdown, businesses that did not move fast enough, that did
10:26
not shift fast enough, that weren't creative enough, that didn't that took the
10:30
time and had to think are no longer around. But the ones that said,
10:33
you know, I and Li's stick with the creativity for a minute.
10:37
I had a business owner. She was this hair salon stylust, and you
10:41
know, they shut down all the salons all a matter of fact. The
10:46
day before I saw I drove by a new salon and she was putting her
10:50
sign up and I went to congratulate her and set up a meeting to meet
10:54
with her to go over some of you know, the the strategies that I
10:56
could offer her, and then finding out that that is shut down. But
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this other stylist, you know what they did. They talking about thinking outside
11:07
the box and being creative in a challenging situation. One is that they put
11:11
paper. Now, I know this is that we're not talking legal, but
11:13
we're talking if the if the goals survive, then you do what you gotta
11:18
do to survive. Right, So she put paper on her windows, and
11:22
she started cutting hair and inside, blocking the windows, making sure that no
11:26
one could see. And at one point they even start cutting hair outside.
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And so it's like you you do you know, but if you've got this
11:35
rigid mindset and you think, oh no, no, no, that's that's
11:37
two ghetto for us to cut outside, You're gone. You do what you
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gotta do to get where you need to go. I mean, not shoot
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anybody or do anything legal. You gotta you gotta think outside the box and
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be willing to like do what it takes to to uh to make it happen.
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And so, uh, you know, she's still alive. She's still
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alive. So I love the fact that she was able to take a challenge
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that could all that probably shut down so many other salons, and she was
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willing to move and bend. But it takes, as doc Se said,
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it takes creativity because if you sit there and say, you know, we
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don't have a place to go, but you don't think, let let's move
12:13
everybody outside, let's put you know, go on the back. So that
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that, I think is key to being able to succeed as an entrepreneur is
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the being able to be creative, being flexible, and then having the mindset
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to be able to go where the journey takes you and have that determination to
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win even in spite of all the challenges that you have, you know,
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keeping your business going. So great great story, Stacy, thanks for sharing.
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Luke. How about you? Yeah? All great points, really good.
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I think of one of the first things that comes to mind in some
12:48
of those comments is the book Who Moved My Cheese? Have you guys read
12:52
that book? Yeah? I heard it. That's a good one, great
12:54
book. We tend to get so emotionally attached to what we think is what
13:00
we're trying to do, and we have to have I think that a mindset
13:05
of agility and an adaptation, and that is just a way to live,
13:09
a way to operate as an ongoing methodology. So I think that's great.
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One of the other things I think of when you talk, when you talk
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about being resilient, about surviving those unexpected curve balls of life throws at us
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is the concept of who, not how, and something that I've focused on
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a lot recently as we've been growing quite a bit. You know, when
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we approach a problem, a lot of times we our first reaction is always
13:37
ask well, how do I fix this? How do I solve this?
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How do I work around this right? How do I how do I create
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a solution? Which is I think a great initial step is being solution focused
13:46
not problem However, I think I've come to learn that often and even better
13:50
question is who can help me fix this? Who can help me solve this?
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Who not only is better at this than I am, but loves doing
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it because I hate doing it? If who is that person then loves data
14:03
entry? Who is that person that knows how to work a spreadsheet or fix
14:05
this marketing change in the whole industry? Who is that marketing expert that just
14:09
like stays up at night figuring this stuff? Out because it's what they love
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who, not how, And so asking yourself, especially as a business owner,
14:16
that collaborative mindset when it comes to problem solving is far more powerful than
14:22
just your own internal creativity and solutions. And so I think that's one of
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the things I personally have evolved in over the last year is beginning to ask
14:30
myself that question and begin to gather those types of people and resources, rather
14:33
than trying to be the answer to everything, find the ones that have those
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answers already one steps ahead of me. Well, that's Luke, that's really
14:43
important because I think as business owners sometimes we feel like we have to do
14:46
it all. Yeah, especially small business owners right guilty too. The reason
14:52
why we have roundtables that we can have help the help business owners here,
14:58
They've got some other people that they can talk to. Any lot of you
15:03
guys, listen to this as you're coming back in here, reach out to
15:05
any one of us. We're happy to talk with you and engage with you,
15:09
each one of us and our unique talent, abilities, gifts that we
15:11
have for each other. And so finding that I think is really great,
15:15
Luke. What you're saying, a particularly small business owner, they feel like
15:18
they have to do it all, and in Stacey, you've talked about this
15:22
in the past, some times they're doing it so much, and that they
15:24
would have actually spent the money and the time helping a consultant or get somebody
15:26
else, but actually make more an engagement team in a much better way than
15:31
the time that they're taking away that they could actually be more profitable in their
15:35
business. I agree. You know, let me sure another tangible experience.
15:41
When I had my business, it was a learning center, and I when
15:46
I first started, I had a I had an in house no no,
15:52
no, I had an outside bookkeeper. And what I've found was that one
16:00
of the most important things that a business owner needs to know is their cash
16:04
flow. So I would like to tackle you know, that's one of the
16:07
biggest challenges, and I'm sure we can all time in with that, but
16:10
cash flow is crucial for any business to survive, and so we can even
16:15
tackle that this time or later, that's fine. But what I found was
16:21
that in order for me to know exactly day to day what my cash flow
16:26
is or was, that, I needed an in house bookkeeper, somebody that
16:30
could or someone who could tell me on a daily basis what my cash flow
16:33
was. And I had tried all kinds of I had tried all kinds of
16:38
things. I had an outside bookkeeper that no, I had paid a bookkeeper
16:42
to come in, and I didn't know what I was looking for. I
16:45
was new, new in business, and she uh was working for another for
16:51
other organization and told me she knew what she was doing. This is,
16:53
this is I'm giving you an example of how you could jeopardize the sixth the
17:00
life of your business by trying to figure it out on your own, versus
17:03
talking to someone who is experienced who could tell you the pitfalls so that you
17:07
don't go through what I went through. So hired her to come in.
17:11
And what she was doing was that she was reconciling my bank statements after the
17:15
bank statements came out. So I only knew my cash flow after the statements
17:21
came out. So there was a time when after two thousand and eight,
17:25
and the business was the castle was down, and I'm thinking that she's telling
17:30
me that we give you example LISTAI that there's ten thousand dollars in the bank
17:34
account. Well, and I'm writing checks. I'm doing peril and writing all
17:37
these checks. And then I'm getting all these overdrafts because I'm thinking there's ten
17:41
thousand dollars, but she's giving me old numbers, so and so, and
17:48
I kept saying, you need to be my eyes, you need to to
17:51
I knew what I wanted, I didn't know how to articulate. I kept
17:53
saying, like, why is she Why am I getting overdrafts? She tells
17:56
me this this, you know. I tried outside keepers, and finally I
18:00
found somebody who was very confident who could tell me day to day, this
18:03
is where your cash flow was. But not only that, she actually knew.
18:07
She had the skill to be able to know when to hold off paying
18:11
certain things, knew the if I had a grace period. She was able
18:17
to manage my cash flow so that I wasn't just paying bills just out of
18:21
paying bills, but there was a strategy behind making sure that my cash flow
18:26
was not tied up in a bunch of bills going out. So I learned
18:30
the hard way to find the right bookkeeper in house bookkeeper who can help me
18:36
understand where my cash flow was and to help me monitor my cash flow.
18:41
But as a new business owner, when I started, I just thought I
18:44
just need a bookkeeper. I needed somebody to do and so it was costly.
18:48
At one point I realized that I was twenty five thousand dollars in the
18:52
minus tweets, and I think I had felt like somebody punched me in the
18:56
stomach. And when I went to the bookkeeper and said, did you know
18:59
we were twenty five thousand dollars? And I kept sensing what what's off here?
19:03
But it was a hard lesson to learn as a business owner that thinking
19:07
that I'm paying this person to do the job and not realizing that I didn't
19:11
even have even have a competent person, part in part because I didn't know
19:15
quick books and I didn't know how to go in and check and so so
19:19
that's just one area of that could be. Well, I think that's a
19:22
good one. I mean, I'm happy to go in there. And I'd
19:25
love to get Curtis's thoughts on this, because as if you're buying a business,
19:29
right, Curtis, you're looking at the cash flow, You're looking at
19:32
the counts receivable, right, So how do you as a business owner if
19:36
you're having that trouble the obstacles come up, I'm not getting paid. We
19:40
kind of talked a little bit about this last last time. Yeah, well,
19:44
you know, we obviously helped business owners get into business, and I
19:51
think probably the three major parts about being a business would be a number one
19:59
capital, which is cash flow is exactly what Stacy's saying. Number Two is
20:04
their client base. Who's your client? I mean a lot of business I'm
20:08
going to open up ABC, whatever it is, and sometimes they don't even
20:14
know what who their clients are going to be. And sometimes it's so narrow
20:19
that it's not going to support it at all. And the third thing that
20:25
is really important is advertising, marketing strategies. All of these things. I
20:30
think those three things are extremely important now when we look at evaluating businesses.
20:37
Like Stacey just mentioned, is cash flow is I'm sorry, that's just the
20:44
way it is. It's cash now. A business that's not making any money,
20:48
it's still value, but it's not as value. I will say that
20:53
because there's probably especially if they've been in business for a long time. But
20:56
I don't want to talk about that. I will talk about the cash flow
21:00
that you asked me to talk about a little bit there, David, because
21:04
that's extremely important. If I if I'm a buyer and I can come in
21:08
and I can. I can buy your business and I can give you fifty
21:11
percent down and and use your you know, seller financing or something like that,
21:17
and I use the cash flow to pay you back. I mean,
21:22
that's that's going to help both the buyer and sell it. That's a that's
21:26
a win win situation. So when Stacy's talking about cash flow, it uh,
21:32
you know, we've heard it before. Cash is king. I'm sorry.
21:34
I mean that's just the way it is. Every business is in business
21:38
for one reason, and all that other stuff is you know, you know,
21:44
culture and and all that stuff that we've talked about on this on this
21:48
show. The bottom line, cash is king. I mean, it's just
21:52
the way it is. And so you have to as a business owner,
21:56
even dealing with all those problems that you deal with, if you have to
22:00
find a way to deal with your margins, you have to find a way
22:03
to increase your margins, cut your costs, and and try to make everybody
22:10
happy with with the dollars you have. That's for sure. Yeah, I
22:14
think you gots And again going to what Stacey talked about earlier about think outside
22:17
of the box. So before I started toward your business, I was in
22:19
an environmental consulting build for many, many years. And there's different ways.
22:25
This is a thing. You can be different. You can be creative in
22:26
the way you contract with different groups or individuals. Hopefully get built back.
22:32
Here we lost Bill, but let's see if we're gonna get built back on
22:34
stage there you go, Welcome back Bill. But so some here's just some
22:38
ideas to think about. One of the things we realized in consult and this
22:44
is a consulting specifically, but if you're not asking for a retainer, for
22:48
example, up front, that's one that can help help with pay because if
22:51
you're you know, planning for that if the especially if the person goes out
22:55
of business or something, at least you've got some kind of income on the
22:56
front end to help you with that. If you're waiting to the end and
23:00
getting paid later and later or they you know, they don't. So that's
23:03
one. Another one I'll just throw out is you know, give a discount
23:07
for getting paid quicker, because that again we talk about cash is king,
23:10
right, It's better to get paid get a little discount in fifteen days or
23:14
thirty days and waiting sixty ninety days, Yeah, you lose a bit of
23:18
quote unquote profit there. But reality is if you're paying This is what I've
23:21
seen a lot of business, especially they have a lot of people that they
23:23
have to pay for, is you have to go get a loan from the
23:26
bank to cover payroll and cash. You're paying money on that, and so
23:30
your actual profitability starts to go down because you're borrowing money to pay your people.
23:36
And the longer you have to do it the way to get paid,
23:38
you know, that puts you in a challenge, and so you have to
23:41
be very careful about looking at that and planning too for you, like you're
23:45
talking about Stacy looking at all those numbers, So what's the fluctuation if I
23:49
lose somebody or if I add somebody? What does that affect? And you
23:53
know, right right, really good dad, there's a lot of We're gonna
24:00
stick with it with cashrow. There are other things that you can do with
24:03
cashurow. I know that when I had because it was a learning center that
24:07
in my registration form, I put in systems and we talked about systems before
24:12
and the importance of systems. But the parents and the students had to give
24:18
a thirty day notice before they quit, so imagine if I didn't have that
24:22
in place, and somebody walked in and said, we're quitting today. And
24:26
let's say that they had they brought in three hundred dollars a month. Well,
24:32
if you don't have systems in place, that's three hundred dollars that you
24:34
were counting on to pay your bills, and just like that, they can
24:37
walk in and cancel. And so I made sure that I had systems in
24:41
place like that, so that I knew that at least for that month,
24:45
I would have that cash flow, and then knowing anticipating how what I needed
24:49
to do to bring in some additional cash flow. If I were going to
24:52
lose three students, what that would calculate to be and have many more new
24:56
students I would have to bring in to be able to office that the loss
25:00
of that. So that's another way to bring in you know, to watch
25:04
your cash flow is to understand, uh, those those numbers as well.
25:07
It's really it's really about numbers and understanding how your business flows and the flows
25:12
and ebbs and being able to gauge where you are and where you are with
25:15
your you know, your cash flow. So, Luke, did you want
25:19
to chime in there. Sure, yeah, I think you know. One
25:23
of the things that I've learned in business and my experience myself, but also
25:29
for a time in my past, I focused a lot of working with business
25:32
owners as a risk management consultant and commercial insurance expert for them, and so
25:37
I got to witness from the inside out a lot of those struggles from cash
25:40
flow from a cash flow perspective, and one of the things I've witnessed is
25:45
the growth can kill a company very quickly, and so one of the principles
25:51
I try to live by and encourage small business owners to live by is be
25:53
quick to profit, slow to growth, focus on the profit line and understanding
26:00
those margins, building up those cash reserves first and foremost, so you have
26:04
the ability to roll with life's punches. As it's saying goes, it doesn't
26:07
matter how much you make, it matters how much you keep. It's really
26:11
easy, especially when you're growing at all, to have those expenses compound faster
26:15
than your income does and your revenue, especially if there's lag time between what
26:19
it costs to run your business and when revenue comes in from the service or
26:25
product you provider self. Many times there can be that delay in those accounts
26:29
receivable where you may not get paid for sixty ninety days or something, and
26:32
yet your costs are now understanding how those work together. And so when I
26:37
coach clients often because from a well planning perspective, one of the first things
26:41
we focus on is building cash reserves, building liquidity, productive predictable assets that
26:48
give you the ability to be very agile financially so that you can capitalize on
26:52
opportunities, but also you can you can deal with the blows and the unexpected
26:56
expenses. You need to be able to deal with both of those things.
27:00
So first and foremost, building that that buffer, that that financial buffer of
27:04
productive liquid cash that can give you that and as well as credit that can
27:08
give you that ability to capitalize an opportunities and roll with the punches is the
27:14
first step of financial planning that we often deal with. Forget investing for the
27:18
long term and some of these other things that will come in time. None
27:19
of that will be sustainable if you can't roll with life's punches and capitalizing opportunities
27:25
well, and we talked a little bit about this last week, Curtis.
27:27
You know, as you grow in the business life cycle and you have your
27:32
your efore method. But you know, what gets you to a certain level.
27:36
Let's just say three million isn't going to get you to seven million.
27:38
The process and like all that you're talking about, so people understand the business
27:44
life cycle that you live, Curtis, they don't understand that and have studied
27:48
that, then yeah, you're you're you're you're setting yourself up, like you're
27:49
saying, Luke, for some real challenges. If you just want to grow
27:52
for the sake of growth and not considering counting all that other costs there,
28:00
you have to find out exactly how much it's going to cost for you to
28:02
grow. I mean, that's that's the bottom line, Luke, get it.
28:06
I mean you go after you know, business owners, you go after
28:10
the quickest, fastest dollar. And you don't want your dollars as you mentioned
28:15
David, you don't want people, you don't want people to pay you sixty
28:19
ninety days later. You have to find a way. You have to find
28:22
a way to get your dollars in faster than everybody else. Because if you
28:26
can do that, you're you're you have cash flow. That's where it is.
28:33
That's what it's all about. You know. I like to bring up
28:36
another area about cash flow. I mean a lot of times to small business
28:40
owners if they could reduce their operating costs just by streamlining their their systems,
28:48
streamlining the processes. I mean there are other ways that you could you know,
28:51
look at that too. I mean, if you're if you're accomplishing a
28:55
certain process and five steps, but you can narrow down to three, now
28:57
you freed up more timing having to pay out as much. So the business
29:02
owner really needs to look at all the different areas of their business and seeing
29:07
they can free up cash flow or streamline and again they may not be able
29:11
to see it while they're inside the business. That's why it pays to get
29:15
some outside eyes to go in and look at you know, ways to be
29:18
able to do that. But but I mean we had talked about this before,
29:22
Curtis about you know systems and again systems, if you really have strong
29:26
systems in place with your business, that should also help you reduce your cost
29:32
to some degree. And even you know, workers come, you know,
29:36
claims, all of that can kill your cash flow. There's just so much
29:40
that is involved with business that can kill cash flow. So you really need
29:42
to take a holistic view of your business and areas that where you can tighten
29:47
up and you know, so I think we could definitely go more on this
29:52
one. But you brought up a component that I want to touch base on,
29:55
Stacey, and I think this is good. I want to come back
29:56
to cashlow. But related to that, you talked about operations and and technology
30:03
is huge. We're here right now on you know, we're using this streaming
30:07
platform and we're able to share. And you think about, you know,
30:11
if you don't adapt to the change and the technologies. You know, before
30:17
COVID, you know, video conferencing was still around, but it was definitely
30:21
not as prevailing as it is today. Right if you're if you're a business
30:25
owner and you're building, if you're putting all your eggs and so to speak
30:29
in a basket of physical space and make sure people come into a place that's
30:33
a lot of money and a lot of place. And then, like you
30:36
talked earlier about Stacey, like how do you adapt because you can again adjust
30:41
and say like, Okay, I can have a remote workforce or shrink down
30:45
the size of my physical footprint that I have to pay for every month using
30:49
technology as innovation. And so I want to throw out that idea and maybe
30:53
Bill, I'll throw it to you because you're you're a technical guy with with
30:56
podcasts and tools. You've got to just think about this. But like technologies
31:02
and things change, right encouraging me to you and I talked about this last
31:04
last week last week about Kodak. Kodak was a film company, but and
31:08
then technology and digital cameras came out, and they didn't change with the technology.
31:12
They were actually one of the first in the market, but they didn't
31:17
adjust and they were not able to be responsive to the to the market.
31:21
And the technology is changing. So Bill, from a business owner and realizing
31:25
these tools and you and I were talking about podcasting and showing me some other
31:27
ways to reach people. There's a whole bunch of things in there. But
31:30
I love to get your perspective as a business owner. How do you adapt
31:33
and be resilient to these technology changes and innovations. Well, research is essential
31:44
in the day and age because there are so many different conference software companies out
31:53
there then, and they each offer slightly different things that you know, It's
32:00
like you know, go to meeting may offer a feature that Zoom doesn't and
32:05
that you need, so Zoom's not going to work or vice versa. You
32:10
know, I use a different a different software for for doing my podcast than
32:16
you do because of different different needs that I felt were important. And uh,
32:24
you know you have to do you have to do the research to to
32:29
know where those differences are and to be able to make a knowledgeable decision in
32:37
foreigned decision on on what that is, you know. And uh, you
32:44
know there are so many different different needs that a company may have when going
32:47
for remote workforce that you know, you may need more one to one time
32:55
with with the individuals who are remote who are working remotely, or or you
33:02
may need just groups of people that you know to to be able to talk
33:08
speak with it once. Of course. Uh. One of my big plan
33:14
this year is to is to start a mastermind And so I'm doing the research
33:17
on what service is going to do that, and I'm looking to see if
33:22
one of those services might actually work as a replacement for my podcasting software as
33:28
well. So I may be able to kill two birds with one stone,
33:31
and uh, but I won't know that until until I've studied all the options
33:37
that are out there. Yeah, I think that's a great point. Bill
33:39
is sometimes we grab a solution quickly because we think like everybody's using it or
33:45
that's what it should be, instead of asking ourselves the questions. You're just
33:47
talking about, Bill, what what's what's the What am I trying to solve
33:51
here? What? What? Identify the problem? Yeah, what's the problem?
33:57
What's the problem? Station here? And we can get sucked into right
34:02
the latest and the greatest. Yeah, I mean that there are the and
34:10
these things move quickly sometimes some of the technologies, you know, so you've
34:17
got to be careful before you, like say I'm going all in, I
34:21
would say as a as a you know, an entrepreneur too. When you're,
34:24
for example, communicating your message or going somewhere, it's like there's a
34:28
lot of different ways you can reach people, email, texts, on different
34:31
social media platforms, all of these things you've got to be careful about where
34:36
you only have so much time and energy, right, and so you've got
34:38
to be careful by and who I think someone who said this earlier, who
34:42
are who are you trying to reach? Right? Who are these people that
34:45
you're serving? Are they even there? Right? And so asking these questions
34:49
about could I go on, you know, try a different talk platform,
34:54
even like saying technology is that the right fit for my company and who I
34:59
want to be and and then the people are there. So I really like
35:01
your idea bill of asking these questions, doing the research. And again I
35:07
think you know, Stacey, you were talking about this earlier about you necessarily
35:12
don't have to you personally necessily don't have to do the research per se if
35:15
you have somebody else in your organization. So any way, ID love to
35:17
do that. Luke, you said that too, like who is in the
35:20
organization, particularly if they're you know, a lower cost individual, nothing bad,
35:24
I mean, they just you can pay them a certain rate and they
35:27
can do it and they love it great. That's the things that they can't
35:31
do, things that you can do. Right, So if there's people in
35:34
that organization that can do that kind of research for you and bring back recommendations
35:38
to suggest, especially the end user anyways, right if they're going to be
35:42
your end user. Yeah, Stace, you got other thoughts on that.
35:50
Oh oh you're saying absolutely. You know, when you when you bring in
35:53
people in your organization, you do want to look at creating, even in
35:58
your own organization. I want to say a master team, but you want
36:00
people to hire people who can contribute to the overall plans of your team.
36:07
And I think if you bring in strong people, you know that that can
36:10
make those contributions, it definitely will help with everything we've talked about the creativity.
36:17
I mean again, when I went on my business and we ran into
36:22
challenges, I tapped into the creativity of the people that are hired and I
36:25
brought them in for a specific reason because I knew that they could they could
36:30
think. You know, one of the biggest challenges that a lot of employers
36:32
have is they hire people that don't even want to think, that can't think.
36:37
And so one of my processes when I was hiring was I actually asked
36:43
them a question about, you know, the vision of what they could see,
36:49
what they could do or contribute, because I wanted to see if they
36:52
could think outside the box and they could actually contribute to the overall building of
36:55
the organization. And so yes, of course, tappen tappen to that you're
37:00
hiring them, and you're not just hiring them to do a mundane job.
37:02
You actually want to tap into the creativity and their ability to help create synergy
37:08
within that within your organization. Go for it. I have a couple of
37:15
things I could add to that. I think one of the things that ties
37:21
in very closely with that is, you know, we as a small business
37:27
owners, we tend to be very possessive of our ideas and of our vision,
37:30
and it can be hard to let go a little and give people the
37:35
autonomy to be creative in their role and be creative in the job you gave
37:40
them, and not micro manage them, let them, let them expand their
37:44
portion to net. Because one of the most important parts of this that Stacy's
37:47
talking about that I think is really important for the health of a company is
37:51
that your people have ownership and what they're a part of that they feel like
37:54
they truly have a valuable role to play as opposed to just an order to
38:00
and I think that that goes a long way for what they'll contribute to your
38:04
organization and how they'll represent your organization to others and to the community and to
38:07
your clients if they feel they have a hand in the direction and the value
38:12
and the growth of the company because you've given them some of that creative license
38:15
and autonomy. So I think that's really important for the health of the culture.
38:21
One of the thought quick thought I had when it comes to decision making
38:22
and researching and things like that. I think an important principle that I've learned
38:28
to try and live by is to go deep, and go deep quickly in
38:34
your research, by you know, identifying exactly what it is you need and
38:37
meaning you know the problem you're trying to solve, but then to decide relatively
38:39
quickly, because you'll learn a whole lot more by experience than by over analyzation.
38:45
And so one of the things I've learned to caution people against is analysis
38:50
paralysis. You get in there and you're researching every CRM on planet Earth,
38:55
and two months later, you still haven't decided on what CRM to do,
38:59
and you've wasted did a colossal amount of time and money because of all of
39:02
this research. And you'll you'll gain a lot more by clearly identifying what you're
39:07
trying to solve, identifying a good tool that'll do it, and just implement
39:12
and learn as you go, and you'll you'll you'll really quickly figure out what
39:16
works and what doesn't. If you need to shift, then shift. But
39:21
there's a saying by Jim Rona, I love that indecision is the thief of
39:24
opportunity. And in business you have, like we talked about before, you
39:28
be agile and you need to be able to clearly quickly identify what action steps
39:31
need to happen and make it happen, because time is your most valuable asset,
39:37
and you'll spend a ridiculous amount of time researching and analyzing something too long
39:43
t infinitem that that can be incredibly costly, far more costly than quite frankly,
39:47
making a less than ideal decision. Better to make a decision, learn
39:51
from it, and take action than to be stuck in paralysis for a while
39:54
because you're analyzing it to the ninth degree. Yeah, yeah, i'd say,
40:01
and I think there's always there's a scale there, right, So you're
40:05
looking at what you're implementing, you know what you're the question like you're saying,
40:07
you're trying to answer, Luke, if you know, there's some things
40:10
that are a lot larger. When I talk about a whole accounting system and
40:15
a whole enterprises are planning with software and how depending on how large the organization
40:21
is, there's a magnitude. But I agree with you holistically, Luke,
40:23
because you're looking at that and then I would say as a business owner,
40:27
to minimize these changes and things, as one that likes to do that as
40:30
a creative side and likes to try lots of new things, find a small
40:35
subseted team where you can actually bring that in, like you said, Luke,
40:37
before you roll it out holistically to the whole company and say hey,
40:39
guys, here's this brand new thing boom and everyone's like, what the heck
40:43
is this? Uh, And there's a lot of resistance push back on something.
40:46
Finding a smaller subject team that will help you minimize the challenges or the
40:51
obstacles or the objections. Quite frankly, you're going to get objections no matter
40:54
what. Whenever you roll up something new in an organization. I don't know,
40:59
I've never gotten anywhere. Each where it's one hundred percent adoption. I
41:02
want to be clear to I'm not advocating constant change, that's for sure.
41:06
Yes, there's a lot said for getting really masterful at your business, which
41:12
means you have to lock in and perfect it. I used to work with
41:15
a partner that he was the epitome of that. The next tiny object was
41:21
always coming through the line. It's like we haven't even figured out the first
41:22
shiny object we had. Why were we putting another shiny object in here?
41:27
But it was always like we kind of try something a marketing strategy or whatever
41:30
for a while, and and we wouldn't have success right after bat with it
41:35
as inevitable. You don't because it takes a while to get good at it
41:37
and to run it right. But then he would kind of get bored of
41:40
it and go, oh, here's another thing. I'm like, time out.
41:44
We haven't even figured this thing. Yeah, So I'm hardly with you,
41:47
David on that. On the idea, you know, don't change all
41:50
the time to change for change sacre because you just bored and created. Want
41:53
to get creative, you need to identify what your model is, what's your
41:58
target audience was, all the things that you need, and then get masterful
42:00
before you even consider changing. I think it was Steve Jobs has said the
42:06
idea of being swift to make a decision but very slow to change it right,
42:12
you know, so be resolute in your decisions and stay the course,
42:15
but don't agonize over something an infinitem when a decision needs to be made.
42:21
So there's a difference there. So just to make that distinguishing factor. Yeah,
42:24
Bill, you're back, Go for it. Bill. Yeah. Well,
42:30
I was once years ago involved in the merging of two organizations and one
42:36
of the organizations, the older one, was ready aim, aim, aim,
42:43
Wait are we ready? They aim and they never get to fire.
42:49
And the other organization, and the younger organization, was okay, ready fire,
42:54
Oh should we have aimed? And you have to find some you have
42:59
to find a middle round between those two where you're taking at things like research
43:04
and uh and and things like that, you know, because you can't do
43:10
too little, you know, it just continually be You know, you're going
43:15
to run out of bullets if you keep if you keep firing without aiming,
43:17
and if you never get the fire, there really wasn't a point in getting
43:22
ready in the first place, you know, so very important. Yeah,
43:28
I love that. Well, Stacy brought this up. I think you did
43:30
too, that Luke, is this idea of right innovation technology, but ultimately
43:36
it's human beings. It's your team that implements whatever this is or your system.
43:39
Right, So I think talking about how you build a resilient team lead,
43:45
we're really pastor. We talked a lot about leadership and culture here though,
43:47
too. But if if we don't have the right team in there that
43:52
and Luke and I were just talking about this last night, having an amazing
43:55
team in place that can really implement the thing, because that is really important
44:00
if you have people. If it doesn't take very many in an organization,
44:04
especially for a small business, just takes one. You know that's going to
44:09
be a challenge or an obstacle. If you've got somebody that is you know,
44:15
always has to be right or they're they're there, they cause problems of
44:19
the organization. And so just want you guys to address that. No,
44:22
Bill, you're gonna have to hop off in a minute, but maybe if
44:24
you wanted to share your thoughts where you leave because from a leadership perspective and
44:29
building resilient teams, how practical strategies or solutions here to help overcome obstacles or
44:36
challenges as a business owner. Well, the big thing is it's identifying the
44:43
real problem first, I believe, you know, make sure that you're actually
44:47
attacking the right problem and not some symptom of the problem. You know,
44:54
don't don't put a band aid. Oh, don't put a band aid.
45:00
And we lost him. Yeah, he's like, don't put whatever you do,
45:06
don't do this. Oh man, we were just gonna have We were
45:12
just gonna have Bill he had he was gonna have to hop up a little.
45:15
So Bill, we're you're gonna have to come back and share it with
45:17
us. But but that idea of getting at through problem because I I'll just
45:22
tell it an example, and I'd love to get you guys thoughts here.
45:24
But you know, I've worked in organizations where particularly if a person's been there
45:30
a long time sometimes and there's a little sense of entitlement or there's it's just
45:36
nobody likes to work around them, but they just they've been they're entrenched there
45:38
and somehow and it's like, how is a business owner we we handle that
45:42
because it's it's not helping our growth and doing it in a in a thoughtful
45:47
manner and identifying really what the root cause is there. But I'm just giving
45:51
you an example of a challenge and an individual. These are things that you're
45:53
gonna face as a business owner. But you know, I wanted to hear
45:59
you from you guys. You know, let me know if there's other other
46:00
ones you want to talk about here, specifically as far as building that resilient
46:06
team and challenges, because if it's it's if you don't have those key people
46:09
in the organization that are helping lead develop your team members just as you have,
46:16
you can it's really critical to growth and it can actually negatively impact.
46:21
If you have somebody that is actually not doing that, they're actually going to
46:24
repel people. People are going to leave the organization. And if you're not
46:29
paying attention, just like you said earlier, Stacy, you're as a business
46:31
not paying it close as attention and you're like, what's going on here?
46:35
And then you come in later and you're like, oh, this person is
46:37
being you know, not disrespectful, or they're not meeting their sales goals,
46:40
they're just not really that into their position. You're like, I didn't even
46:44
know. And if you're keeping if your hands are off, you're not paying
46:46
attention, you can really, you know, your business can obviously very suffer.
46:52
You'll lose lose both clients and other team members. So if you're not
46:58
careful about that paying attention out that and we were talking about innovative in technologies.
47:02
Some if you have a very voice, very opinionated voice, terous person
47:07
and they're like, I'm not gonna. I'm not going to implement this new
47:09
program. I'm not gonna. I'm not I'm going to be resistant to it.
47:14
It's like that idea, you know that the bad apple spoils a bunch,
47:16
meaning it starts to spread through the organization, and so you need to
47:21
know how to address that that challenge. And yeah, I would say one
47:29
of the biggest things systems that you can put in place is accountability in some
47:34
form or shape. I have no doctor, You're probably going to chimee into
47:37
this, but I think when you leave a business culture, you leave your
47:42
employees to uh them their own demise. Then you come back to a business
47:46
where you will not recognize it because you've had You've got mutiny and all kinds
47:52
of chaos that you never thought that would seeman. And so if you don't
47:54
have a way to the employee with you employee, what's the word, uh,
48:01
annual reviews, it could be you know, there's all kinds of ways
48:06
to put in in systems to be able to hold people accountable to their their
48:12
job responsibilities to And I think you know, I've gone into businesses where,
48:17
like you say, the the the decision maker, which could have been an
48:22
HR director or whatnot, just really didn't care about their job, just really
48:28
was there to get a paycheck. And and and because of that attitude,
48:31
created a culture within the business where employees weren't being taken care of as far
48:37
as their benefits. They wouldn't allow the benefits advisors to come in and educate
48:42
them because it was too much work for them. I mean, you know,
48:46
so somebody can chime in as far as you know your thoughts on being
48:52
able to hold people accountable for their their job or results or whatnot. So
49:00
anybody, you know, I excuse me, I've been listening, and I'll
49:06
tell you one of the things that I I just I love sports for so
49:12
many reasons. Number one, that everybody knows the objective. You know,
49:17
the objective is today all right, guys, let's go out, gals,
49:22
let's go out, and let's lose one for the giver. It's just they
49:27
know what the purpose is. And Luke touched everyone. If you touched on
49:31
it, and that is what what is What is our objective? I mean?
49:37
And and if it is money, which it which it is? And
49:40
I and I hate to always say that, but it is, then we
49:45
have to develop systems stacy as you mentioned, and checks and balance and balances,
49:52
key performance indicators, all these things come into play. Why do we
49:57
need all those things? Because humans are crazy. We're just creating. We
50:02
know it. You and those that are listening to this call we are crazy.
50:08
And so once you understand that, then you understand this, you understand
50:13
that you have to make sure that every day everybody knows exactly what they're doing.
50:21
Because if you don't know what they're doing, nine tenses out of ten,
50:25
they're not doing their job. Period into story. I mean, you
50:30
have to make sure and you could do that based on systems safety that you
50:34
mentioned, checks and balances, because when you see that your margins are moving
50:39
in a certain direction, you know something's happening, but you better catch it
50:44
way before that. It can be the end game for sure. But that's
50:50
why I like sports all the time, because today we lost. All right,
50:54
what do we do? Right? What do we do? But you
50:58
everybody knows the in game that Look, if we don't make the playoffs this
51:02
year, it could be our job, right, Coaches, players, all
51:08
that, That's how it works, and in business it should be the same
51:15
way. You can't hide and especially in technology nowadays and how we have so
51:21
many analytics and all these different measures. You can't hide anymore. So you
51:25
better just stick your neck out there and and take one for the team,
51:30
because if you don't, somebody else will period into story. And and that's
51:37
where HR comes into play. And the HR is actually for major companies are
51:44
are doing two things. They're really doing two roles or roles for management and
51:49
CEOs and roles for employees. It's it's really the middle ground for them.
51:54
But I'll tell you it's things are changing rapidly and if we if we don't,
52:01
it'll go back. Like we said last week, David, I think
52:05
I mentioned last week, Luke, is that you know back in the horse
52:08
and buggy days and nobody thought that no way we're going to replace horses and
52:14
buggies and whips and all employees that worked with all those things. And next
52:19
thing you know it, somebody brought in this model T what is that?
52:22
Then that's what's going to happen. It's going to happen. As we sit
52:27
here and talk right now, things are changing even more rapidly than it ever.
52:34
Well, I wanted just to add to that. Guy pulled the published
52:37
resource off my shelf. This is a great book if you want to check
52:40
it out twelve week here. But this idea of accountabilities in this book stasy
52:45
and really really what it is is we can have consequences for what people do.
52:50
It's not really accountable. There's consequences for what you do or you don't
52:52
do that exactly, that's my point. And if you don't do I mean
52:57
there should be and those be good things and they could be bad, bad
53:01
things, right making your sales goals and getting a great bonus or you know,
53:07
not getting that bonus because you've missed it. But I think the idea
53:09
is what you said Curtis and I love I'll get Luke in here is we're
53:12
kind of wrapping up for the night. But this idea of yes, that
53:16
we do need to have visibility, like you're saying, Curtis, and today
53:20
there's there's great tools I use them and absent things that you can show visibility.
53:23
Literally, what are the facts. This isn't speculation, This is just
53:28
the facts. This is the reality of where you're at. And as we
53:31
talked about last time, planning, where do you want to go? What's
53:34
the in my mind? So you have a foundation of understanding and where you're
53:37
at, which then helps us to then, you know, like building a
53:42
house, where are we going to build, where we're going to frame off
53:44
of, But we don't know where our foundation is, there's nothing to shoot
53:46
for. We've got to understand that and then and then know where we want
53:52
to go. So, Luke, I'd love to get your input here as
53:54
we're kind of wrapping up for the night on just objectives and having a clear
54:00
understanding of what you're trying to Yeah, just in your team and any any
54:02
feedback on this idea of consequences accountability you know, sure, Yeah, I've
54:09
read Actually I haven't finished the book The Twelve Week Year, but that's a
54:13
great book. I started it in the process of it, and so a
54:17
couple of thoughts. I mentioned this a little bit earlier about the idea of
54:22
ownership in your culture and giving people enough autonomy where they own the both the
54:25
results and the failures of what they're seeking to accomplish. Where you've you've trusted
54:30
to them, this idea of stewardship. You can trust at a certain element
54:34
of your company to them. They play a role in the success and and
54:37
there's really no room for dead weight in your company. You have to sort
54:40
of set that culture of of hey, we're an a team, we are
54:45
top tier players, and that's the only kind of people that there's room for.
54:50
And sometimes you have to release people back into the workforce to go find
54:52
a better fit for them because they want to play at your level. And
54:55
that's okay, But when it comes to having those measurable and clear goals for
55:01
each person in each role, it has to be something that, again they
55:07
personally own. So I think one of the best ways to do that is
55:09
having those conversations with each person, helping them first of all, if they
55:13
don't have a clear understanding what you expect to them, making sure they do,
55:16
but also turning it around and going what would be success to you,
55:21
to your employee, to your to you, to your team member, going
55:24
hey, I don't want you here and not getting the best out of your
55:29
career. I want you to love what you do. I want you to
55:30
look forward to your role, and I want you to feel purpose and significance
55:34
in it. What would a successful career here look like to you? Tell
55:37
me, paint that picture for me so that I can lead you and design
55:42
a plan in a way that fires you up, the lights the lights your
55:45
fire and gets you going going, I want to get after this, I
55:47
want to make this happen. So I think in leadership of your team,
55:52
you've got to help instill that ownership and fire in them by asking them what
55:57
do you want this to look like? Put it back on them rather than
56:00
them just looking at you go and tell me what to do. Boss.
56:02
That's they'll never really own that if all you're doing is just bossing them around.
56:07
It's an imboss and a leader, and it's tough to be a leader,
56:12
but it takes more work, it takes more investment, it gets personal
56:15
sometimes, but I think you have to do that, and you also have
56:19
to do those hard things where you have to you have to care enough about
56:22
your whole company and the good of everyone there to cut someone loose sometimes if
56:25
they're they're hurting everyone else. And that's does of course a lot easier to
56:30
say than to do. But I think if you have a perspective of going,
56:34
hey, i've got to protect everyone, not only one in my company,
56:37
but everyone that we serve, everyone that we seek to have an impact
56:39
on, is affected by that one rotten apple, that one person who doesn't
56:43
care, and you've got to have that frank conversation with him when you know
56:46
are you gonna care or not. And I'll end it with this. I
56:52
believe in the spiritual law of reaping and sewing. I believe wholeheartedly in that.
56:58
And so if you can foster an environment of those natural consequences play out,
57:01
it becomes a lot easier than you're trying to manufacture some synthetic consequence.
57:07
And there's a lot to be said about what I mean by that, but
57:09
the idea is you set up a culture and environment where the objectives are clear,
57:14
where there's ownership, there's enough autonomy, and it ultimately, if you
57:16
don't succeed that there's just the natural consequence plays out, good or bad,
57:22
and that reaping and sewing is the best thing you can do. I know.
57:25
That's how I try to parent my children. It's the same kind of
57:28
thing. It's a way to do it. Yeah, anyway, I hope
57:31
that helps. That's great, Luke. We're going to wrap it up here
57:35
for the final thoughts, just I'll throw it to Stacey here. We appreciate
57:38
Luke joining us and Bill and we'll get get just final thoughts from everybody here,
57:43
So Stacy, just your final thoughts on this idea. Key takeaways here
57:45
for business owners and facing obstacles and challenges as we wrap up, Yes,
57:51
yes, entrepreneurship is inevitable that you're going to face challenges. And as we
57:57
said, you don't have to do it alone. Look for people that can
58:00
support you in this journey. It could be other successful business owners, other
58:05
people who are successful in their key areas of business that can support your business.
58:10
But you don't have to do it alone. And you know, again,
58:15
I like I like that the natural consequences we've been and so and so
58:20
just you know, there's a lot to be said, but I'll go ahead
58:23
and let Duxy b. Thanks Dace. Yeah, the bottom line, you
58:30
know, it's kind of what Luke just said his last comments there, is
58:34
that you know, we're all in this together. It's just the way it
58:40
is. And so why not just teach people what you've learned? In other
58:45
words, as you climb this ladder, this corporate ladder, instead of kicking
58:51
the ladder, why don't you just reach down and help people up to your
58:55
level. Because eventually you're going to be gone anyway, So why don't you
58:59
help others. And that's what it's all about, is and that's why we're
59:02
on this call here, is to to really help entrepreneurs. We've all made
59:07
mistakes. I know, we want to the number of mistakes that I've made
59:12
and I've learned from I've learned from them, and I've taught about them,
59:15
and and that's that's, of course how we developed our own little system or
59:19
reform me philosophy system. And and so for you that are listening to everyone
59:24
that's listening to this podcast, I'll tell you what. Don't be afraid to
59:30
make mistakes. That's part of it. Put fear aside. Just just go
59:35
for it. Just you focus on what you really really want and go for
59:39
it. Period. Thanks Doxy Luke. Last thoughts, I don't know that's
59:46
that's pretty well said. I think that's just there's of course, we go
59:52
a lot deeper on the idea of eathing and sewing, a lot of deeper
59:53
on some of these individual concepts, you know. But I love what he
59:58
Doxy just said. You know, go out there and go out there and
1:00:00
learn. I like to say, I guess if I were to give one
1:00:02
last thought, I like to I like to encourage my team that there's only
1:00:07
two potential outcomes when you venture something. When you endeavor to accomplish a goal
1:00:12
or succeed at a task or get better, you're either going to win,
1:00:15
meaning you're succeeded whatever you're trying to do, or you're going to learn.
1:00:19
Both are a great outcome when or you learn that there's no fail unless you
1:00:23
quit. And so when I learn it's a way way to move forward,
1:00:31
I'll bring it back around. Before we started, was is your mindset that
1:00:37
you know you are your greatest asset investing in yourself, knowing like you said,
1:00:43
Doc and said, you know this bigger vision, encouraging you. You
1:00:47
know you don't You don't get to that bigger vision without failing and these challenges
1:00:51
and learning. There we go, Docsy's got a little fun there. Uh
1:00:57
you think, oh, what's the dog name, Curtis, what's your dog's
1:01:02
name? Oh, Skippy, he's got he has only three legs. See,
1:01:12
this is this is this is all you got to stay for the end,
1:01:14
for the for the special. Uh you know, Kippy, this is
1:01:16
all I have to keep me company. Yeah, but just encouraging you as
1:01:24
you go go big. This year we're at the beginning of twenty twenty four.
1:01:29
I think big. I think you know you can achieve more really than
1:01:31
you probably have ever imagined. I call it your impossible game, whatever that
1:01:35
is. For you to really think bigger and larger and shoot for that.
1:01:39
I want to encourage you those come back because you're gonna be able to hear
1:01:42
from other stories here. As we continue this series, the Business Right Now,
1:01:46
Round the Table Podcast, we'll be having other guests. We're thankful for
1:01:49
continued returning guests and colleagues here Stacy, Doc c, Bill Luke. So
1:01:57
thank you all for joining us, and next week we'll wish you well have
1:02:01
a great twenty twenty four. Thanks everybody. Thank you baby,