Latest / Big Talk About Small Business / Ep. 113 - From Overwhelm To Order: How Entrepreneurs Choose What To Do First

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Ep. 113 - From Overwhelm To Order: How Entrepreneurs Choose What To Do First · Big Talk About Small Business

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_05: Be nice to everybody.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_05: He goes, I could be talking to you guys.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_05: You could be my largest client in the future.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_05: I don't know.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_05: 100%.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_05: Or I could be working for you, could be one of my, you could be my boss.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_05: You might buy my business someday or what?
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_04: You just don't know.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_04: Agreed.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_05: Hey everybody, we're back.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_05: Back in the studio once again.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_05: Back in business for big talk about small businesses.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_05: It's a rainy day.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_05: Barely got here on time.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_05: Driving up the highway.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_05: Cold and windy.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, it is.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_05: That's the worst.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_05: It's the wind, bro.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_05: I mean it's piercing.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_05: Wait till you're my age.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_05: I'm cold all the time.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_05: What's are you?
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_05: I am.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_05: My it's it's ridiculous.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_05: Sonia wants to keep the temperature like 64 in our room.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_05: But but for you, like it hurt, does it hurt your bones?
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_05: Uh dude, I am sitting there with my long sleeve underwear uh on, my flannel jammies, and if I really want to be dramatic, I stick a stocking cap on, too.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_05: Wow.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_05: Just to make my point of like, I am freezing over here.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_03: So let me get this straight.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_03: You you're wearing thermal underwear.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_03: Long.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_03: And then you have flannel jammies on top.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_03: That's correct.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_03: That's that's new level.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_03: Are you wearing socks?
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_03: No, but if I was cold enough, I will.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_03: Dang, you'll put those on too.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_03: See fuzzy ones?
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, of course.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_05: No, just this is what all our listeners want to hear.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I mean, I think part of the wisdom here is about becoming of age.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_05: My dad, the older he got, you know, he would be like, first he started buttoning the top button on his shirts.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_05: Uh-huh.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_05: Then he started wearing a sweater all the time.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_05: Then he'd be wearing like his freaking winter coat in the house.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, really?
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_05: And it'd be like you go in their house, you can't even stand to be in there.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_05: It's so damn hot.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_05: You know how old people are.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_05: It's like, I gotta go outside to get some oxygen.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_05: Oh my god.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_05: So freaking hot in here.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_05: But that's what happens to you, Eric, when you get old.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I'm 67, you know.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_03: Dude, that's that's pretty awesome of me, man.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, you rock it out like a 30-year-old.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_03: 12 and a half more years.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_03: I'll be 80 if I live that long.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_05: Can we hang out when you're 80?
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_05: If I'm still alive, you I want to hang out with you.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_05: Sweet, man.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_05: That's awesome.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_05: So, hey, what are we talking about today?
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_03: Keeping your priorities straight.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_03: That's right, man.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_03: Keeping your priorities straight, which is a uh, I would uh honestly say it's probably the fundamental challenge of entrepreneurship.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_03: Man, in all honesty, right?
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_05: It really is.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_05: It's overwhelming.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_05: It it yeah, everybody's we have so much coming at us and so much to do.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_05: I know.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_03: Isn't it the truth?
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_03: Dude, I struggle every weekend.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, like just trying to prioritize, trying to decide what's the next thing I gotta do.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_03: And I you know, and it's I mean, that's where I mean I'm with you.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_03: It's painful.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, it is it is a daily thing.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_05: It really is.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_05: And you could rationalize why you do anything that you do.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_05: You know, truth that I'm getting something done, or I should do that.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, of course.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_03: And then you get done with your day, and a lot of times I'm like, what did I even do?
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_03: I don't feel like I even you know scooped one shovel full of this dirt out of it.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_03: It it is the truth.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_03: I feel like I got nothing really accomplished.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_03: I made no headway.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, but then the weird thing is is that you turn around and like what it's like comes to me sporadically once a week or once every two or weeks or a month, sometimes once a quarter.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_03: Something just happens that tur starts to turn, you know, turn the ship a little bit and in the direction that you've been working every day, a thousand things to do a day to make it happen.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_05: Yep, it's so true.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I mean, I some days I sit say to myself, I can't believe how much I got done today.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_05: I am like the most productive human alive.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_05: Then other days I'm like, like you said, it's like, what did I get done today?
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_03: Well, even when you have those high productive days, it's like very short-lived.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_03: Because you wake up in the morning and all hell's broken loose again.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, the do list is continuing to grow.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_05: But I mean, the secret is keeping your priority straight, doing what's the most important thing, and never failing to get that thing done.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_05: That's true.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_05: If you do that, you won't feel guilty.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's true.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I always come back to your principle of doing the thing that you hate the most.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_03: That you don't want to do the most.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_03: That that is important.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_03: First thing in the morning, get it done.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_03: And it's so it that is very gratifying.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_03: When you actually because I don't know, I get in the procrastination trap a lot.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, sure.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_03: You know, there's things that like I get an email, somebody's wanting to know about some dry ass freaking things that are just like so monotonous.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_03: It's just oh, it's so painful.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_03: It's like something about like, you know, looking back and finance for something, you know, like that happened six months ago.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_03: Like, or like or the the worst is like insurance-related stuff.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_03: No, I don't like your premiums coming up.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_03: Do we need it?
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_03: Like I'm just that happens with me.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, why am I paying this insurance?
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_03: And is there a better policy out there?
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_03: And then you start trying to quote them, and it's just the most confusing thing.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_03: I know.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_03: You can't compare apples to or apples and all that.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_03: No, and then so, but that that email comes up, hey, it's time to renew your policy in 10 you know, in two weeks, and it's like, crap, now I have two hours worth of work to organize that.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_05: I'm dealing with trying to close out the 2024 year and the tax return for the accountants at GNS.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_05: And I honest to God, this weekend got a 25 question.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_05: Well, it was first A through H questions I had to answer, and then 25 questions after that, all on 24.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_05: A year ago.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_05: Over a year ago.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_05: Yes.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_05: And it's just uh horrible.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_05: But we got it done.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_05: Did you?
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, we got that done.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_05: But now we're on the the review for 2023 and 2024.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_05: And it's like you said, it's just dreaded.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, there's just such a long list.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_05: And they hammer you over the head.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_05: The accountants are really organized that do this.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_05: They send you an email once a week that shows how much of their information you've submitted.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, wow.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_05: What percentage of the way you're done.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_05: Is that somewhat encouraging to see that it would be if we got more done?
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, or you're still at like 20%.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, we're we're today, we're we're we're attacking this afternoon when I get out of this meeting because yeah, it's uh that's the painful stuff.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_05: It really is.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_05: It's we hate to be burdened with it, but nevertheless, we've got to get it done.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_05: We've got to get it done on time.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_05: And um, so yeah, I get it.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_05: Um I do think, you know, part of the problem is that this short-term um uh attention, the short attention span that we all have, you know, with a with a very high preponderance of ADHD amongst business owners.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_05: I I just for whatever reason, I think these people tend to gravitate toward the life of the entrepreneur.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_03: Probably because, you know, I've kind of I I don't know if if I have a classification or not.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, people will say that I have ADHD, but I don't really I've never spent the the time to study what that means exactly.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_03: But anyway, I think in some regards, like like the folks that are probably like this mentality don't really have any concern or the foresight to think and contemplate about becoming overwhelmed.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_03: Or having too much on their plate.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_03: So they just overcommit then.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, totally.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_03: Like there's no I can do anything.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, there's no regulator on there.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_03: There's no governor.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, right.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_03: No governor.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_03: Because that's my thing, right?
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_03: Like, I mean, hey man, let's do this, a seat opportunity, let's go, let's go.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_03: Why are we all standing around waiting?
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_03: And like I don't think anything about the consequences ahead.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_03: I'm with you.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_05: I do the exact same thing.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_05: And then if I But you do have to weed that out every so often.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, yeah.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_05: Low productivity or low value activities, or you'll just never get anything done.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_03: No, that's true.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_03: That's true.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_03: And I think I'm going through like a little process that like that right now, actually, of you know, and I and I I do believe like there's also some just there's some just casualty that's gonna happen regardless.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_03: Like it's everything's chaotic, sure, right?
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_03: It's overwhelming, there's too much to do.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_03: Some things are just gonna, they're just gonna have to die.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_03: They have to, I know, yeah.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_03: Like they or they just don't get done, and it's just gonna plague.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I mean, you know what I'm saying?
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_03: I do, there's a sacrifice in there.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_05: Yes, there is.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, the thing, you know, I think what I've discovered though, like, you know, I know you're involved with some of your nonprofit activities, like the Heart Association and all that.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_05: Well, cancer challenges.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_05: Cancer Challenge, excuse me.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_05: You're big in that cancer challenge, and then all the other stuff that you do, and all the people that want to meet you and have coffee.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_05: And I mean, I do so much of that, you know.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_05: And you know, I just got back last week.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_05: I was at the SIU college business board meeting, and you can rationalize on the one hand, you could say, ah, I'm doing too much of that.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_05: On the other hand, some of the relationships you make with those people come back to you.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_05: 100%.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_05: And it's just fascinating.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_05: Like on my board of SIU, I met a guy.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and I I mean, I knew of this guy before, but he didn't really know what he had done.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_05: He was the CEO and chairman of Random House, the largest publisher in the country.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, yeah.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_05: And he invented Lightning Source.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, are you serious?
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_05: Which we use.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_05: That's Wide Girl.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_05: That's killer.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_05: He invented on-demand printing.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_05: That's awesome.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_05: It is.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, that guy is like brilliant.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_05: He's 80, probably 81, 82 years old.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_05: Where you'll be soon.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, where I'll be soon.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_05: It was just great spending time with him, you know.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_05: And you never know, we're like, it's not that I want anything out of the guy.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_05: His name's Phil Pfeffer, but I find it inspirational.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_05: You could say, well, there's no time.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_05: But on the other hand, here's a guy who's really wise and really smart.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_05: You know, and so you do get something out.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, that's I think that's part of our problem.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_05: We feel like we get something out of everything.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_05: Everything.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_03: Everything.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_05: Everything, yeah.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_03: Every meeting's important.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_03: You know, like to that point, like when people say, Hey, I just had a like if I go to a sales meeting, right, or something, I'm talking with somebody and with another person on my team, we walk out, I've had people go, Man, that was worthless.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, I I will lose my shit because there is no such thing as a worthless conversation.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, there's no such thing.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_03: Just like that marketing effort was worthless.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_03: There's no such thing.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_03: I agree.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_03: There's always a residual.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_03: There is something the value there.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_03: So you can't claim that.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_03: Now, how do you make it better?
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, that kind of stuff.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_03: But but I'm with you, like on this, like when we talk about priorities, you know, you live in this world of chaos, too many things to do.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_03: Short attention span, short inherent with our nature.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, but this the value of staying connected and communicating with people, sitting down with people, having dialogue and conversations, meeting new people, learning about them.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I think that there's, you know, I'm a big believer in like business karma.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it's so real.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_03: It's so real.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_05: And I feel like some people call it God.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, seriously.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_05: For real.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_05: I I you know, I'm not we're not touching on religion, but I said it, I said it.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_05: Um, I had a guest speaker in my class last night.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_05: It's exactly what you're saying.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, the guy's brilliant.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_05: Okay, he's taking his company from nothing to$30 million in revenue in like 12 years.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_05: That's all.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_05: He started by um uh buying a company that had six employees and merging it with his eight employee company.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_05: And he's got 120 people now.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_05: And but I said to my wife, I go, you know, he's such a nice guy.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_05: That he his philosophy is, and he says it, be nice to everybody.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_05: He goes, I could be talking to you guys, you could be my largest client in the future.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_05: I don't know.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_05: 100%.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_05: Or I could be working for you, could be one of my, you could be my boss.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_05: You might buy my business someday or what?
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_05: Because you just don't know.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_04: Agreed.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_05: And so it's like that.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_05: It's exactly what you're saying.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_05: And and I said, Well, he just engenders all these great relationships.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_05: Like you said, people have worked for him the whole 19 years he's been in business.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_05: When he started out, they're like, he didn't even want to start the company.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_05: They all got laid off from the same company.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_05: And they're like, what are we gonna do now?
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_05: Well, you're gonna start a business, right?
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_05: Because I don't know what we're gonna do, and I don't know if I'm gonna pay you.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, but those people are still with him.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_05: Because of the way he treats everybody, because of the energy he puts out.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_05: He puts out good and good comes back.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_05: That's right.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_05: And and he would call that God.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_05: Or you could call it the energy field, the karma, the the, you know, into the ether of whatever it is, and it comes back at you.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_05: And so that's the thing.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, I think that it's important when you talk about priorities to say there's priorities of doing certain tasks, and then there's priorities of maybe things don't ostensibly have a benefit, but these relationship-building stuff.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_05: Yep.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_05: Because it just seems like it just always turns into something good for me.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_05: I don't know what you think.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_03: No, I agree because I mean, I think that we're practitioners of that, but I've seen people that don't practice that and what it does.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_03: Like you to disregard that as something that's important and vital, that karma or that energy or payment for whatever you want to call it.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I've seen people that don't practice that and they become isolated.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, they inevitably they will become isolated.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_03: Inevitably, they'll be isolated.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_03: But then they that's the that's the eventual outcome.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_03: But they but when you start, if you start losing that network and that momentum to it, like it dies a lot fast.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_03: It's like working out.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_03: You know, like if you work out really hard and you're building muscle and stuff, but then you just quit, you sure the hell lose it a lot faster than you gained it.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_03: You know, it's the same principle with that.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_03: And I think that to get off on that track, then I mean, you know, like those things come back to you.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_03: You become weaker, you know, there's not enough people supporting your you around you.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_03: You know, because there's a lot of support.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_03: I think the mystique in business to me, and that why this is such a big priority, is if I met you first time and you really enjoyed the conversation, you really liked who I am, you know, we had a good dialogue.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_03: When I leave that and you go back into your business world, and if it takes months, and then somebody you you say good things about me, you know, that word, that that energy gets around.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, it just kind of multiplies.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, and it takes time.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_03: And then if I'm still proving that trust by my actions in business, that's the most important thing in the world.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_03: It is.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_03: It's credibility.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_05: You're right.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_05: Well, the credibility is and trust is everything.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_05: But I mean, I think when you start talking about the sense of priorities, by prioritizing some of those interactions, those personal interactions is what you're saying.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it helps you keep your energy level up to do some of the other mundane stuff that one must do.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_05: You know why?
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, because it reminds you of why you're doing what you're doing.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_03: It really does, right?
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_03: Like if I have a day where I'm like even this show, right?
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_03: Perfect example.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I mean, is it uh do we have more impressing things to do on a weekly basis than you and I sitting down for a while?
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, absolutely.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, let's face it, we don't make any money on this.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_03: There's no money, nothing.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_03: But our continuous dialogue to me has been one of the most important things in my my life in the last couple of years.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_03: Because we're having this conversation, I leave with a little bit more grounding to me.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_03: I remember why I'm doing what I'm doing.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_03: You're right.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_03: And I feel inspired a little bit more.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, I always do too.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and then I feel like that that you and I like our not only our friendship, but like I feel support from you.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_05: It refines our thinking about things.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_05: And yeah, we have an allegiance to each other, right?
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_05: To try to help each other out if we can.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_05: 100%.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_03: And I think about you and the shit you're going through.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_03: And so there's some positivity to that energy, right?
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_03: Like you know you can have somebody in your circle that that actually gives a little bit of a crap and can understand a little bit about what you're going through.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_03: That's a really big deal.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_05: So those, so at the same time, you've got to prioritize the and get the most important things done consistently without fail.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_05: Because if you don't, then the the problem multiplies, right?
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_05: It does take a certain discipline.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_05: At the same time, you've also got to make time somehow because it helps you get this other stuff done for these interactive human interaction type um relationship building.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_03: It's true.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_03: It's and I'm gonna say something on top of that, like in is showing up to events where other people are gathering in the community so that you can meet new people, they can see you.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, those things are so incredibly important.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_03: And I think that yeah, the community could be the industry.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, right.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_03: It could be a national or international thing, but your community of people in your industry, like trade shows, right, yeah, conferences, professional organizations, yeah, or nonprofit events, right where you're supporting the community.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_03: All those things are so important, and I think that it's it's unfortunate that I think a lot of the younger folks that are out there that have grown up in the digital realm don't see the burden to participate in that.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_03: They don't even want to.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_03: No, they don't even want to.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_05: They don't want to even pick up the phone to call somebody, much less go to a meeting and actually have to show up.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_03: It's just like it's true.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_03: And I mean they're honestly missing out on one of the more gratifying things of owning a business, which if you think about it, when you really start a business, you are helping not just yourself and your employees, but you're helping the community that you live in.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_03: And that community thrives because of all the small business owners that are around.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_03: And hopefully you're helping your customers, your clients.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, 100%.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_03: You're helping everyone, yeah.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_03: It's it's it's such a positive thing.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_03: You are a you are a positive person in the community.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_03: And so to be part of that and to see how you're impacting and then how others are impacting you is a big deal.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_05: I just I was on a call um trying to remember if it was Monday or yesterday.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_05: It's a problem when you get to be my age.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_05: But uh almost.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_05: But no, it was with a company, and we were talking about that very thing and how important it is that they remind their employees of all the good that their business does.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_05: That that, you know, what they do actually improves society, improves the lives of their employees, improves the lives of their clients.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_05: Yep.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_05: And that focusing on that purpose is motivational and helps you get the things that you really need to do done because you realize they're important.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_03: They're worthwhile to do, you know, because if you don't remind yourself of that, then you will be bogged out into tasks that will seem never-ending and pulling you in all directions, and you'll go, why the hell am I doing this?
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_03: This is nothing but pain.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, dude, I like I love this conversation, Mark, because I really honestly, especially as I got older, um, partially because I'm not ignorant anymore or I'm not as naive as I was when I was younger.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_03: When I was younger and started a business, I had no idea, like we were talking about earlier, like, oh, I have an idea.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_03: I don't have any foresight as to the hell that I'm bringing on us.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_03: No, no, none of us didn't know.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_03: But now that I've been through it, I do know the hell.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_03: And so I think that there's a lot more consciousness on my side of going, okay, I am overwhelmed.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_03: There's too many things to do, nothing's seemingly getting accomplished.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, and by the way, I know this isn't gonna end.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_03: You know?
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_03: And so I have to spend a lot more time, like really intentionally remembering why doing things.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_03: So and but to me, that's extremely empowering.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_03: Because when I do focus, like I did it this morning.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_03: I did it this morning, and it was a fantastic breakthrough.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_03: So you said I'm acting a little differently today when you sat down.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_03: Part of it is I would say because I feel a lot more you're in a good mood, yeah.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_03: I'm in a good mood because I this morning I thought about yeah, not only why I'm doing it, but I was having some gratitude about what I was doing, and I was just enjoying the people that I get to be around all the time.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_05: I I'm with you 100%.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, that board meeting I just came back from that was just a fantastic meeting.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, everything about it, from the drive there, yeah, two lane, I took all the way instead of the interstate, kept my top down.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, nice.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_05: The weather was perfect.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_05: I could listen to my playlist and not have to focus on doing anything.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, okay.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_05: Checking emails and text and it was fantastic.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_05: And then I get there and I I'm just I met so many interesting people who are successful.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_05: I got so many different ideas and so much inspiration from all that.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_05: Ostensibly, all it is is hey, it cost me money.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_05: I got to pay out$2,500 a year just to belong to the board.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_05: You know what I mean?
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_05: That's like the dude.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_05: And then, of course, you're getting hit up for money a year.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_05: Sure, sure.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_05: For one thing or another.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, you know how that works.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_05: But the interactions with the people, it was just so energizing.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_05: I I came back from that feeling great.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, I met with students, I met with some great students.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_05: I made a relationship with the kid who's in charge of the entrepreneurship club.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, cool.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_05: I sent him my book.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_05: He's he read, he's now he's making all the members of his club read it.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_05: It's great, man.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_05: It's just all these good stuff.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_05: Now, at the meantime, I got that long list of shit that I got to do for those accountants.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_05: I'm gonna get it done.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_05: We're gonna work on it today.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_05: We're gonna power through that.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_05: We had two meetings Monday and Tuesday to power through the first segment of what we had to do for other accountants.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_05: So I'm gonna get what's important done too.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_03: But um But if you don't prioritize these soft things that we're talking about, yeah, which so many people will disregard, and again, I think the younger folks are uh automatically disregarding it because just because of the circumstance they grew up in.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, because their peers.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_03: Here's the big thing about that, Mark.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_03: Their peers don't believe it's important.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_03: When I was starting business in my 20s, every one of my peers knew how important it was.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_03: Like you had to show up, right?
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_03: Because we didn't have the social media and all the technology and the and the other ways to communicate.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_03: This was the way to communicate.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_03: But you know, to know to know that those things are important, you have, you know, the younger folks are gonna have to recognize what we're talking about here about prioritizing these soft skills, these these things that are truly, genuinely a priority above all the other things.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_03: Now, how do you let's okay, we've talked about that.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_03: How on the hard stuff, the more practical things, the tactical things, how do you prioritize, right?
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_03: Like is there a pecking order of prioritization?
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_05: Well, you can take your do list and say what's the most important thing on every day, and then you can say what's the next most important thing I get done if you wanted to, right?
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_05: Sure, sure.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, I but she which you practice that.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I mean, I I really do try to practice that.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_05: Um, but but part of it is just like you said, it's just a discipline.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_05: I I that's the other part of it.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_05: It's like you could know what's the most important thing and just not do it.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, yeah, 100%.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_05: So 100%.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_05: So yeah, I mean, it's some people are just more conscientious than others that they won't go home without getting that thing done or they won't go on to the next thing.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_05: For whatever reason, I do have a certain amount of discipline there.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you do.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_05: And it it it I it's like it it's inherent, and and you know, it's like I'm not gonna not pay my bills on time.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_05: I I I'm always gonna make sure, no matter what, that I'm gonna pay my bills on time because if I value my credit rating, right?
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_05: And reputation.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_05: So yeah, there's just I'm always gonna get my newsletter article done.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_05: Could I not do that and be fine?
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_05: Sure.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_05: They'd say no problem, don't do it.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_05: But why would I want to do that?
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_05: I've done this for 30 some odd years, right?
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it's consistency.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_05: A lot of things that we have to do.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_05: It's you either have the discipline, and business owners do need a certain amount of discipline to just say, these are things I'm gonna do.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, you know, um, Jim Lindsay's famous year, of course.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_05: We've talked about him before on the show for you know, the real estate empire he built.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_05: He's got like 40,000 apartment units or whatever it is.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it's insane.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_05: A very successful guy, you know.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_05: Um, I think he was a razorback player, if I'm not mistaken, as well.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, he was.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_05: But that guy had discipline.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_05: His thing was he never went home until he returned every phone call from that day.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_05: Really?
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_05: That was his discipline.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_05: That was his thing.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_05: There's like people should have their themes.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_05: Yes.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_05: What's your thing?
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_05: What's your thing that you're disciplined at?
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_05: And the discipline helps you get done what's most important, I think.
• 26:55
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• 27:14
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• 27:20
  SPEAKER_03: You know, speaking of that, I'm like thinking about what's my thing.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and maybe my thing is, is what I was a little bit what I was talking about earlier is just about showing up.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_03: The the the value of that.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_03: It is, you do that.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I mean, I'll show up, like I come by this office quite a bit, not for any other reason than I know I need to show up.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_03: It's not the only thing you're doing over here.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_03: No, hell no.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_03: By any but like I have a choice of do I work from the house, do I work from the coffee shop, do I work from Ad Fury, or do I come over here?
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_03: And I feel it's important to show up here just to do my work.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_03: And then I'll do the same thing at the other office, right?
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_03: Rarely am I at home.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_03: Anytime I go home and I do things, yeah, I feel extremely little guilt.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_03: Very guilty.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_03: I feel shameful.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_05: Honestly.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_05: I really didn't.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_05: Maybe too much.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_05: No, no, it's not.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_05: But but see, that that goes back to something I wrote about recently called working in your business instead of on it.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_05: You've got to show up.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_05: You've got to be there.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_05: You got to work alongside your people.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_05: They got to know your interests or what the heck they're doing.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_05: And not be like, I'm I'm above that.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I don't have to do that anymore.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_03: Well, because it's the thing is the mentality is it's not because it's important to me, it's important to the company, right?
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_03: And I think that when you knock your to-do list, like when you're doing like your checks on your newsletter, your you you know, the other things you were talking about, it's not really that's so important to you.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_03: I'm sure that there is, right?
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_03: There's there's a level of that, but you know how important that is for the company when you get the bills paid on time.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_03: Like it's not just affecting you.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_03: When you pay your bills on time and pay your contractors or whatever, the entire entity and every employee associated with that company is represented by that action.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, they are.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_03: And same thing with the newsletter.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_03: Like this wide group has received tremendous fruit from the fact that you have consistently every week for the last 30 years wrote in the newsletter.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_03: Their audience depends on reading that.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_03: Right?
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_03: And so I don't want to let people down.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_03: You really don't.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_03: No.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_03: I think that that's uh that's important.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_03: I would say, like, in that conversation about the tactical stuff, one thing that is in my mind, and I would say it actually changes.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_03: Like over the course of the time in the business, there are some high level umbrella or categories, but there's times we have to do work on the business itself, no question about it.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_03: No, for sure.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_03: But I'm thinking like there was a time in podcast videos where to me the the important thing that was deciding my priority was kind of in this category of Pricing.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_03: You know, and so for a while it was.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_03: Figuring out the pricing frightened everything I was doing that week, right?
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_03: It was having the highest priority or whatever, however long that took.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_03: Now it's in sales and revenue.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_03: The company is ready for revenue, is the number number number one thing in my brain.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_03: And so everything that I'm prioritizing for the past few weeks and going forward relates to the revenue.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_03: Has to relate to the revenue.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_03: So if I get something about insurance, it's more important that I go ahead and just renew that insurance policy, let it ride.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_05: Maybe it's you're not getting the best deal.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I get it.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_05: No, you're right on it.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_05: And so let's have your focus.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_05: Well, I think these categories.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_05: That makes total sense.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_05: But I think also, though, you also have this underpinning of your daily activity that is based on trying to know your employees.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_05: And you value the relationships you have with everybody.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_05: 100%.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_05: And maintaining that.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_05: And that's why you get the loyalty you get.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_05: That's fair.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_05: As much as anything else, that makes all the difference in the world.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_05: Dude, 100%.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_05: You show up, you show an interest in your people, you talk to your people, you work alongside your people.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_05: That has allowed you to build these companies.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_05: Yep.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_05: And then they take on a life of their own.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_05: And it's not every single thing that you do or figure out every day.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_03: There's nothing more empowering than to see a group of folks that are to see something be born.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_03: And it's just moving.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_03: It has this going.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_03: That's the culture.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, it is.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_03: That is the culture.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_05: It's so incredibly rewarding to see to but be part of that.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_05: But see, if you didn't prioritize maintaining relationships with people, yeah.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_05: That's fair.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_05: Which has no specific return associated with it directly, right?
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_05: You wouldn't be able to do that.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_05: You would not be able to build these companies.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_05: You'd have to be plagued with turnover, morale issues and a million other problems.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_05: So so that that's that's like one of the underpinnings.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_05: That's your discipline.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_05: So not only do you need to know what the highest priority is, you also have to have these sort of things that you're very disciplined about, whatever those may be for you.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_05: And then there's that, then there's that other thing that you're focusing on.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_05: That category, right?
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, that category that you were that you were just talking about.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_05: Like, you know, I've got to do now it's revenue, you know, before it was pricing.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_05: And after I get that solved, then it's going to be whatever it is.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and so that's that's yet another layer over this whole thing.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_05: What is your overarching?
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_05: Like, you know, I always tell my students, and you know, survival is the number one thing for any business.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_05: That's true.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_05: You'll never be able to achieve any of your goals if you can't survive in the first place.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_05: That's right.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_05: So, you know, you know what I'm dealing with with one of these companies, it's it's all about bring capital in.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_05: I can't even control it with sales at this point because when you sell something, you don't get paid enough of it to make that big of a difference.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_05: If that makes sense.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_05: Sure, sure.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_05: It's just bring in the capital so I can survive, so I can figure out the marketing problem, so I can figure out the production problem.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you're buying the time to fix the other things.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_03: Time.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_03: That that's my overarching thought process in that case.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_03: That's an interesting statement about the time part because I think that in the conversation of priorities, like you have to understand the timeline a little bit, right?
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_03: And it kind of comes back to the categorization, the buckets I was talking about.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_03: That's part of this timeline.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_03: There's this, you know, I can see it intangibly, right, in my brain, this of this vision of timeline.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_03: And it depends on your all your capital structure, really what it comes down to, what that timeline really is.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_03: And the business that you're in, the type of business.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, and the market.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_05: Some businesses convert to cash a lot faster than the others.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_03: 100%.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_03: And and uh, you know, I think that like what you're doing is is like you're you're recognizing this, that there's this timeline, and you can't fix, you know, Z because Z, you don't have enough time right now.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, Z is three months away, and I need to survive three months.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_05: I gotta focus on survive, then I get to Z.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_05: That's right.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_05: It's it's a sequential process with a critical path.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_05: Yep.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_05: Know your critical path.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_05: That that is some and that is essential to establishing priorities.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_05: You know, I think that's a critical path of whatever you're trying to do.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_03: I think it's it, man, because I'll be honest with you, like just as from the when we were first talking this conversation from the beginning of this the show, there is too there are too many things to get done.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_03: I have too many emails I can't get through.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it's just I'm sure you do.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_03: It's it's it's ridiculous.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, you know, and then I believe you.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_03: And so I feel a little guilty by what I don't attend to because I hear the you know the sundown mentality, or like you're talking about Jim Lindsay, call everybody back, you know, but these emails, right?
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm just like, I'm like, they're sitting in my inbox.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_03: But funny enough, like I I from this conversation, I'm not really feeling too bad about it.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_03: Because there really is sort of those emails and those things that are actions don't really, I mean, I don't need to.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_03: They don't do anything, right?
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_03: I don't, I mean, that's probably 95% of what your emails are is crap.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's it's crap or it's just not really that important.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_03: People get upset because you don't respond to them.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_03: Listen, you know, I don't necessarily owe an explanation, but in my brain, I'm actually, when I get those things, there's something that I like this discussion because there's it's happening instantly, right?
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_03: When I'm getting these emails, or we're we're getting them, or looking at our inbox, and I check an email and I'm just like, eh, you know, there are times like I don't want to deal with that.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_03: There's that passive side of my life, but there's a lot most of the times when I'm thinking about this, it's like that's not worth my time right now.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I get it.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_03: But I'm not sitting there going, is this worth my time?
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_03: Is it one A, one C, you know, all that crap?
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_03: It's a fast, it's a very fast thing because in my brain I have this timeline.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_03: And what's the urgent thing?
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_03: Is it sales rabbit?
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_03: If it's sales, yeah, because here's the thing.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_03: If I see something from a client, yeah, boom, baby, boom, I'm with you.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_03: All over it, baby.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_03: Or a presentation, or the sales team needs collateral, or we're pricing structure is a little unclear, or our terms on our presentation are wrong.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_05: But if it's somebody trying to get the some firm trying to promote somebody to be a guest on this show, that might get oh, that gets highest.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_05: That might get pushed aside.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_05: Let's see.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_05: No, they could.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_05: Because they're constantly hawking those people.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_05: But yeah, I I get no, I I I know exactly what you're saying.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_05: That's interesting.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_05: That's a place.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_05: The email classification is a super critical place that you know what your priorities are.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's fair.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_03: You know, and you can actually look at that and kind of make some adjustments to that if you need to.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I mean, I delete everything.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_05: I I I mean, I don't I I do look at all of it and I constantly clear it out.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_05: My wife's inbox has like 50,000 emails that it's see.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_05: Mine don't.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I have I have maybe 50 in there right now.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that are that I've looked at.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_03: I look at every email.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_03: But they take an action that yeah, yeah, to follow up on.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_03: And funny enough, whenever I do spend that once every quarter, I go in, I'll clean them all out.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_03: It takes usually about an hour and a half at that time because I start from the bottom, I'm like, that was taken care of.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_03: That was taken care of.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_03: I don't need I mean, I just all of a sudden I go up to the top and I'm like, I just cleared out my inbox.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_03: And there's been 60 in there sitting in there that weren't worth anything.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_05: Yep.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_05: Isn't that interesting?
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_05: Exactly.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_05: It is.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_05: So that is part of it.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, we are all just constantly bombarded with stuff.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_05: What's really important, what's not important.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_05: You got to decide what's the most critical thing you're gonna get done.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_05: That's right.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_05: If you don't get that done, you're gonna be very unhappy and probably feel burnout.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_05: That's right.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_05: At the same time, you've got to maintain relationships with people because that's really important, whether it's customers, employees, or just being out there in the community to get inspiration and energy and to give it.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_05: Um, that's that's important.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_05: Somehow you got to find a way to get that done all at the same time as get your most important tasks.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_05: And then you got to have a discipline that you apply to all this stuff.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_05: That's right.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_05: Right?
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_05: And your overarching focus, which could change at any point in time, or it might change based on what you're working on.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_05: Because if you're a classic entrepreneur, you're probably involved with a half a dozen businesses.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, yeah, most likely.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_05: It's not just one.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_05: They're not all at the same point in their evolution.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_05: They don't all need the same thing at all.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_05: That's right.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_05: And and knowing what sort of the overarching issue is that you're dealing with, it is sort of a of an overall guiding light, yeah, right, in how you spend your time related to that business.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_03: And I would uh leave it with the listener that if you're an entrepreneur, like you my my discovery from this conversation is is put a little bit more trust in what you're seeing as your timeline, what's important for your business.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_03: You as an entrepreneur, you have you have a very keen, you have 20, you have you have the best vision of what's going on in the eyeballs, and and you don't need to feel you know, like there's some sort of book that you haven't read yet that's going to give you the answer to power design.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_03: I don't have enough data to see.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, God, that's a wormhole as hell, man.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, if hey, that and AI, I don't have the fast tools, is another wormhole of hell that I've I've been seeing is happening going on right now.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_03: By the way.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_03: The software, the AI, the data analysis.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_05: I saw the funniest video online.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_05: I don't know if you've seen this, where these college professors go bonkers over their students using AI and they just pitch fits in front of the class.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_05: One guy threw his laptop, and another guy's like, How stupid do you think I am?
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_05: I know you're using Chat GPT.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_05: Nobody writes like that.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_05: You know?
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_05: It's written by a well-mannered robot with a thesaurus.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_05: It's just one professor after another yelling at their students about using chat GPT.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_05: Oh my God, it's hysterical.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_03: All right, man.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_03: Well, we got we have a really cool show coming up here soon uh with a guest that's a that's a fan of ours.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_03: And oh wow, looking forward to watching that, man.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_05: I'm looking forward to it myself.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_05: So all right.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_05: Well, hey, it's been another episode of Big Talk About Small Business.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for tuning into this episode of Big Talk About Small Business.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_01: If you have any questions or ideas for upcoming shows, be sure to head over to our website, www.bigtalkaboutsmallbusiness.com, and click on the Ask the Host button for the chance to have your questions answered on the show.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_01: Stay connected with us on LinkedIn at Big Talk About Small Business.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_01: And be sure to head over to our website to read articles, browse episodes, and ask questions about upcoming shows.