Latest / Your Money, Your Rules | Financial Mastery, Wealth Mindset, Leadership Principles, Intuitive Decision-Making, Human Design / 215 | When to Get in the Weeds and When to Zoom Out

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215 | When to Get in the Weeds and When to Zoom Out · Your Money, Your Rules | Financial Mastery, Wealth Mindset, Leadership Principles, Intuitive Decision-Making, Human Design

• 0:01
  Erin Gray: A lot of advice that we receive as business owners or CEOs or founders is that we need to get out of the weeds and we need to stay in more of that 30,000-foot view and take on that role and be that visionary.
• 0:13
  Erin Gray: And like most advice that gets thrown out there in the world, I don't necessarily agree with it.
• 0:18
  Erin Gray: And I think it's very nuanced.
• 0:20
  Erin Gray: And sometimes the issue can be that we are too far in the weeds.
• 0:24
  Erin Gray: And sometimes the issue can also be that we're so far removed, we're above in the clouds and the 30,000-foot view in the visionary that we don't actually know what's going on in our business and we don't know what's happening inside of it.
• 0:35
  Erin Gray: So I think what we actually need to be asking ourselves is not one or the other, but like what view does my business actually need of me in this season of my business and need from me right now?
• 0:46
  Erin Gray: So let's dive in.
• 0:49
  Erin Gray: This podcast episode actually came to me because I was thinking the other day about a couple of vacations that I wanted to take and plan for over the next year.
• 0:58
  Erin Gray: And as I was contemplating where I wanted to go and why I wanted to go and all of that 30,000-foot visionary idea planning, I recognized that what have I actually done to get there?
• 1:13
  Erin Gray: Like what was some of the in the weeds stuff that I needed to do?
• 1:17
  Erin Gray: I recognize like that's what we sometimes do or we do a lot of in our business, right?
• 1:22
  Erin Gray: This is how a lot of us show up in our business.
• 1:25
  Erin Gray: You know, I think some founders need to actually get out of the weeds.
• 1:30
  Erin Gray: And you'll know this by a couple of things that I'm gonna mention.
• 1:33
  Erin Gray: If you're involved in every decision, if you are involved in every employee issue, if you are paying attention to every expense and you know your financials, and like, hey, I'm one for knowing your financials.
• 1:46
  Erin Gray: But if you're like all in the weeds in the financials, in the know of all the client things, you can probably, it's safe to say that you're a little bit too much in the in the weeds.
• 1:54
  Erin Gray: And I think some of this, you're gonna have to run it through your filter, but I think some of this comes back to control.
• 2:00
  Erin Gray: I think some of this comes back to trusting, and I should say like the feeling of not being in control and the feeling of not trusting.
• 2:08
  Erin Gray: Um, and I think that this can even be somewhat of like sympathetic nervous system, right?
• 2:14
  Erin Gray: Like the survival stuff.
• 2:15
  Erin Gray: Like if you are someone who is used to always putting out fires and solving problems, which is what I used to do, like that was probably an identity that I had, then you're going to be more in the weeds because that's going to feel comfortable.
• 2:29
  Erin Gray: It's going to feel like worthiness stuff here and earning.
• 2:33
  Erin Gray: Like, okay, I did, I'm like doing what I should be doing as a business owner.
• 2:38
  Erin Gray: Like that's the belief that we have.
• 2:40
  Erin Gray: I'm not saying that that's actually helpful or what we need to be thinking or feeling or believing, but that is where sometimes I think some of that comes back to of like being in the weeds and being controlling about a lot of things.
• 2:51
  Erin Gray: I think it's like sometimes it's a nervous system that hasn't actually been able to rest.
• 2:56
  Erin Gray: We are so much stuck in that sympathetic, you know, stress state that we are in.
• 3:01
  Erin Gray: I call it survival.
• 3:02
  Erin Gray: You know, that survival state, that's where we're familiar with.
• 3:04
  Erin Gray: That's what the body is used to feeling.
• 3:06
  Erin Gray: I want to say here that when we are in that sympathetic state, when we are in that survival state, we are definitely in reactive mode.
• 3:14
  Erin Gray: We're not in a calm response mode.
• 3:17
  Erin Gray: And if you know anything about the brain and what happens with that, like you're not able to think creatively and to have ideas and downloads because you're so much in the weeds.
• 3:27
  Erin Gray: Now, the flip side of that is you can be in the weeds and you can be from a very calm place, right?
• 3:32
  Erin Gray: Like I think that's how I am now.
• 3:34
  Erin Gray: I didn't used to be, but like from a very calm place, a curious place, an inquisitive place.
• 3:39
  Erin Gray: Like I think it matters to understand things in your business, but we don't have to stay there.
• 3:44
  Erin Gray: I think you also have founders who actually need to get in the weeds.
• 3:47
  Erin Gray: You know, everything that I teach or advise on is so nuanced, it's so specific to you and to the individual.
• 3:53
  Erin Gray: So, like I'm always saying, like, run it through your filter, but I'm always going to be asking, like, where's the middle?
• 3:57
  Erin Gray: You know, like I think sometimes we can be so far in one extreme that we recognize it, we see that contrast.
• 4:03
  Erin Gray: And so then what we do is we go all the way over to the other side.
• 4:07
  Erin Gray: And then what we have to realize is like, okay, that's not necessarily healthy either.
• 4:10
  Erin Gray: So, like, where is the middle?
• 4:12
  Erin Gray: And your middle is gonna be different than my middle, but I do think that everybody has a middle.
• 4:16
  Erin Gray: And I think we can take advice too far one way or the other.
• 4:20
  Erin Gray: And I think that that actually has to happen sometimes in order for us to, like I mentioned, to see that contrast, to see like, okay, that's not healthy all the way over here.
• 4:29
  Erin Gray: And neither is this, right?
• 4:30
  Erin Gray: It's like it's not healthy to be so far in your weeds in the business that you don't pull out and you don't look at like, okay, what is going on?
• 4:38
  Erin Gray: What are what am I thinking and planning for that 30,000-foot view?
• 4:42
  Erin Gray: But it also isn't healthy and and helpful to be so far like visionary and never come back down and be like, okay, let me actually do some CEO stuff of like looking at the business.
• 4:53
  Erin Gray: And so I think you have to really, this always comes back to like, how do you feel in your body?
• 4:58
  Erin Gray: Where do you notice where you like to be?
• 5:01
  Erin Gray: And I think some of us actually nav naturally gravitate to one or the other, and that's okay.
• 5:06
  Erin Gray: I would say most of us probably are more so that 30,000-foot view.
• 5:09
  Erin Gray: And we come down, you know, a little bit and then hop back up.
• 5:12
  Erin Gray: But you gotta ask yourself, like, where is the middle?
• 5:14
  Erin Gray: Because I've had clients before where they've been very visionary, which I think is important, right?
• 5:19
  Erin Gray: Like the founder, I believe, is the endless vessel.
• 5:21
  Erin Gray: Like your consciousness is what creates and grows the business.
• 5:26
  Erin Gray: And also, if you don't know your margins, if you don't know your payroll, if you don't know where your clients are coming from, or if your marketing is working, or why your customers are staying or not staying, or enter in whatever is going on in your business that you're not aware of, then I think this is the invitation for you to actually look at it and say, okay, maybe I do need to be a little bit more in the weeds.
• 5:48
  Erin Gray: And if you're saying, Erin, I hate being in the weeds because as I have gotten more on the spiritual side and really embraced my personality, I definitely am more visionary, more 30,000-foot view.
• 6:01
  Erin Gray: That's what clients pay me for.
• 6:03
  Erin Gray: Like I really like that space.
• 6:05
  Erin Gray: And I also know sometimes I gotta go down in the weeds and I gotta look at some stuff.
• 6:09
  Erin Gray: And so if you're like, Erin, I don't like doing that.
• 6:11
  Erin Gray: Okay, well, then you have to make a decision.
• 6:13
  Erin Gray: I think this is sometimes where we just have to pull on our big girl pants and we gotta do the thing.
• 6:18
  Erin Gray: Like, that's just part of being an owner.
• 6:19
  Erin Gray: And also, are there things that you can be outsourcing that maybe you could they could be doing some of that, the really in the weed stuff, but then you could then sit and have a meeting with them once a week and you could get the data that you need to get.
• 6:33
  Erin Gray: I don't think you need to do it all yourself, obviously.
• 6:36
  Erin Gray: We don't want to do that.
• 6:37
  Erin Gray: And also, I still think that we can abdicate responsibility, like, oh, I'll just hire it out.
• 6:43
  Erin Gray: Like I've I've known people before that are like, oh, well, that's what my CFO does, or oh, that's what the C CPA does.
• 6:48
  Erin Gray: And it's like, yeah, and also you're still the owner.
• 6:51
  Erin Gray: Like you need to sit in on those meetings.
• 6:53
  Erin Gray: You need to know what's happening.
• 6:54
  Erin Gray: And I think the biggest thing that we we actually need to recognize here is knowing yourself well enough, knowing your business well enough, knowing your people and your leadership style and how you feel, and knowing when you need to zoom in and zoom out.
• 7:08
  Erin Gray: Like the word that keeps coming to mind is like vacillate, right?
• 7:10
  Erin Gray: Like getting really good at like being in the 30,000 foot view, and then also when you need to dip down and you need to look and do some in the weed stuff, okay, that's fine.
• 7:18
  Erin Gray: And then you can come back up if that's what you want to do.
• 7:20
  Erin Gray: And I don't think that we have to look at it as like this extreme, but I think if like the words that come to mind is more like flow and in and out, being that visionary, but then also coming down and looking at some of the numbers and just some of the stuff, the daily stuff that happens in your business.
• 7:37
  Erin Gray: And I think that this takes understanding yourself at a deep level.
• 7:41
  Erin Gray: Like this is something that I talk about all the time.
• 7:43
  Erin Gray: Like it doesn't happen overnight.
• 7:44
  Erin Gray: I didn't figure this out overnight and I didn't understand myself overnight either, right?
• 7:49
  Erin Gray: This takes recognizing when you're feeling resistance in your body, when you're not addressing things you need to address.
• 7:55
  Erin Gray: Like, is it because I actually genuinely don't like doing it?
• 7:59
  Erin Gray: Or is it because I don't actually want to look at something and I'm afraid of something?
• 8:04
  Erin Gray: Like that's two very different energies.
• 8:06
  Erin Gray: And I think that when you look at where are you resisting from a place of like fear, you know, shame or guilt or any of those lower vibration emotions, like that to the extent that your resistance is, is to the extent of where your power lies.
• 8:19
  Erin Gray: And I think when we can actually give ourselves some grace and we can actually feel what needs to be felt to release the resistance, to release the feelings that we are feeling to actually do the things that we have been resisting, like what that type of power opens up for us if we're willing to do that.
• 8:39
  Erin Gray: So, a couple of things that I want you to sit with this week is if you are someone who is constantly putting out fires, if you are answering everyone's questions, if you are involved in all of the little minutia, the details, the stuff that when you actually ask yourself, like, why am I even part of this conversation, that might be an indication to you that you actually need to zoom out.
• 9:01
  Erin Gray: And if you're someone who is constantly surprised at what's happening with your financials, or when you meet with your CPA or your bookkeeper or, you know, your financial team, or you talk to your people on your team around operations or your clients or whatever that might be, you actually might need to spend some time doing some of that in the weed stuff, right?
• 9:21
  Erin Gray: Spending some time with your bookkeeper, or if you have a CFO, or spending the time, you know, to sit down with your CPA so that you can zoom in, so that you can get data so that you can make some different decisions.
• 9:33
  Erin Gray: And this is where I feel like, like I said, binary thinking, like we don't have to take everything to the extreme.
• 9:38
  Erin Gray: You don't need to be everything in your business.
• 9:40
  Erin Gray: Like I would actually write down what do I love to do in my business?
• 9:43
  Erin Gray: Because you'll probably find that there's some visionary stuff, there's some 30,000-foot view stuff, and then there's also some like in the weed stuff that you probably enjoy doing and write it down.
• 9:51
  Erin Gray: And like, are you doing those things?
• 9:54
  Erin Gray: And if you're not, then the question is, okay, why am I not doing it?
• 9:57
  Erin Gray: And then if you are doing stuff you actually don't want to do, why aren't you getting support to let someone help you to do those other things?
• 10:04
  Erin Gray: But you know, you don't have to be in and do everything in your business.
• 10:08
  Erin Gray: You just need to understand enough about where your business is, where it's going, and where your attention actually belongs, and like what is most beneficial for you and your business.
• 10:21
  Erin Gray: And if you want somebody in your corner who can get in the weeds, we won't stay there, but who can get in the weeds, like sometimes I think this this is what also what I was telling a friend the other day.
• 10:30
  Erin Gray: I'm like, it doesn't have to be because we need someone, it can just be because it's fun.
• 10:36
  Erin Gray: It's sometimes fun to be with someone that can get in the weeds with you, that can sit beside you and we can have some fun and we can take care of business and we can do what we need to do.
• 10:44
  Erin Gray: So if you are someone who you want in your corner, you want somebody in your corner who's gonna help you get in the weeds.
• 10:50
  Erin Gray: But then they're also gonna be able to zoom out and plan and visionary and 30,000-foot view, right?
• 10:54
  Erin Gray: And really help you see the big picture.
• 10:56
  Erin Gray: That's exactly the kind of work that I do in my private advisory.
• 10:59
  Erin Gray: And if you're looking for that kind of thinking partner, then you can apply to work with me in the show notes.
• 11:04
  Erin Gray: I think the biggest takeaway here is like we're gonna be in both, right?
• 11:07
  Erin Gray: We're going to be in both parts of the business.
• 11:10
  Erin Gray: We're gonna be in the visionary and we're gonna be in the weeds, and both are okay.
• 11:15
  Erin Gray: And like, what do we need to do to support ourselves?
• 11:17
  Erin Gray: And we don't have to be this all or none thinking.
• 11:20
  Erin Gray: So thank you for being here, and I'll see you in the next episode.