Latest / Glovisor Podcast / Working Harder Won’t Grow Your Business—Here’s What Will | Winners Circle with Jay Adewole (Ep 65)
Transcript
- Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR: We're challenging the idea that working harder creates growth and uncovering what it really takes to build a business. Welcome to the Glovisor Podcast, where we explore business growth, communication, and personal development through real conversations with people that make an impact. Our guest is a business consultant, executive coach, entrepreneur, author of eight books, managing partner of point of view consulting. and host of the Winner's Circle with Jay podcast. Glovisor welcomes Jay Adewole Jay Adewole: Thank you for having me on the show. It's Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR: Well. Jay Adewole: my pleasure being here. Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR: pleasure's ours. All right, Jay, so let's begin. Please share with us what you do. Jay Adewole: All right, thank you so much. my name is Ollani Wajun, Jay A the Wall, and I'm a business coach, I'm a strategist, I'm also an entrepreneur. You know, just like you introduced, thank you so much for the introduction. I'm an author of eight different books. I mean, from two thousand and twenty to now. I mean, I've no written eight different books. And I'm also the host of a the winner's echo podcast. But the simplest way I like to describe myself is I'm I'm an I'm I'm an I'm a business person and also an entrepreneur who has been through it and learned from being an entrepreneur. So from there I help entrepreneurs turn good business or good businesses into structured, scalable businesses. And that's what I really do. I also work with business owners who have the vision and are willing to work, just like the word work. You have to be willing to work. But they have reached a point where working harder is no longer the answer. I mean, they need clarity, they need systems, and they need structure. And also they need a strategy for getting to the next level. That is really what I do. I help them move to the next level. And I also help entrepreneurs gain clarity, and I also help them build systems. and scale. Because many entrepreneurs they know how to deliver their service. I mean, they're so perfect with it, they're so good with it, they even know their industry very well. And they are also very good at generating revenue. Some are generating millions of dollars. But behind the scene, the business is chaotic. I mean, the owner is a salesperson, the owner is the customer service department, is the operational manager. I mean, there's nothing bad about that when they when they just getting started started. But my own goal is I come in and I ask, what is keeping this company from becoming the business you originally envisioned? Then we work on the strategy, we position the business. We create processes and systems and also accountability to your staff is very, very important. And that's something we always introduce to any business. And my goal is just simple when I work with business. My goal is simply to help somebody build a system. It's not just for to help you make money, but to help you build a better business. That's all I do in one second. Yeah. Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR: First of all, I'm very upset. For some reason, you seem to get more hours than the rest of us. I don't know how you publish eight books. Eight books. Wow. So that's fantastic. So now Jay Adewole: Yeah. Yeah. Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR: looking at everything else now, you're a coach, you're a strategist. one of the things is to get us on the same page. How is it different to be in a strategist than any other role? Jay Adewole: one of the themes of being a strategist is thinking ideas, bringing out ideas in a way nobody's thinking about. I mean, we are all even in the world of business, even in everyday life, we all have one way, one way of doing things. So sometimes somebody needs to think. I mean, we can't all just be doing it one way. I mean, we do it this way, everybody do it this way. We maintain the status quo, of which I mean status quo is what has kept us the way we are. Right? So but now as a strategist, what I do is I sit down, I look at the problem, I look at different solutions. And I don't just look at the solutions based off of my thoughts. I try out those solutions before to make sure if they work enough. And that's where so anytime I Create those solutions when I'm trying all the problems. Okay. Now, in in clinical research, we they they they do clinical trials. And when they do clinical trials, they want to try out if a medication that was given out. I mean, they give some people real medication, they give some people placebo. Sometimes some people feel better after taking the placebo because mentally they feel they actually took the real thing. So How I do that as a strategist is to review. Review all the strategy I give before I give to a client. I have to try it out. And everything I give out is something I've tried out. Whether it's good or not, I know. So when it's and I don't I try as much as placebo not to give out wrong advice or wrong strategy to any business. So that because I mean their business life is in my hands. So And also, another way I also do it is I do it through the CSS framework. All right. Because I mean, you don't want to start something just being, you know, erratic. So what we do is we the the this framework is called the CSS. It's called Clarity, Systems, and Scale. And the order is very intentional. Because the first thing is clarity. All right. So the first question is who are we serving? You know, who are we serving? What problem are we solving? What we selling? Why should somebody choose us? What are our priorities? What does success actually look like? Because you cannot systemize confusion. That's why I tell every business I deal with. You cannot systemize confusion. You have to have clarity. So once you have that clarity, then we move to the next level, which is the systems. in the systems, I always ask businesses before I come up with any strategies: how how do we leave people? How do we do follow ups? How do we onboard clients? And how is the services being delivered? And who is responsible for what? And what should be automated and what should be delegated? And Wanax, what should the owner stop doing? Because I mean the owner has to get to a point, he has to stop doing everything. Because I know one of the major problems when owners become come from being an hustler to becoming a CEO, the major problem they have is I do this for more than 10 years. You mean now that you're coming in? You're gonna tell me to stop doing this and delegate it to somebody else. They say no. That's one of the major problems you have sometimes because owners don't want to let go of the things they've been doing personally. You know, they wanna be the the cashier, they wanna be the the front desk, they wanna be the I mean, they have staffs, but there's the there's no accountability. They don't really designate any role for the staff. So the staffs are just there waiting for the boss to tell them to do what they need to do. You know, without something they can actually designate to a staff that if anything goes wrong, they ask the staff if it's the operational manager, operational manager, what's happening? You know, if it's accounting, accountant, what's happening? You know, so whatever the role is, they they always want to take it because I mean they are coming from being an hustler, now they are a CEO, they're making millions of dollars, but they are used to being the centerpiece of the business. And which is a problem? Because when it gets sick or anything goes wrong for just two weeks, the business is gonna go down because all the ideas, all the mental things about the business is in the owner, which is a major problem. So then comes scale, which is the third piece of it. Because once we clarify, you know, once we bring clarity into the business, we Create a system in the business. Now we can talk about increasing revenue, I mean, increasing marketing, building the team, maybe even entering new markets and even creating additional opportunities. But one of the major problems I think I see, you know, even as a strategist, is that a lot of entrepreneurs they start with scale. I mean, scale should be the third, but they start with I mean, they've just come into the business, they don't have no clarity, they don't even know what offer they're selling. They don't understand structure, they don't really have a system, they don't even onboard their staffs, they don't have no onboarding, they don't even onboard their client, they don't do no follow-up. All they do is start a business and start running it. And that's where the problem comes. So to yield right now, one question I always tell business owners now is if you currently have hundred, hundred clients or hundred customers, because most of the things we say is, I wish I had more customers. Now, if you have hundred customers, if I give you a thousand customers today, would your business be able to serve them? That's a question. Do you have enough like 1,000 people calling you? They are trying to get your service from you. Can you offer those services today? If that's if that's the case that you cannot do that, then that means you need to work on your systems. And Then you can go to scale to make it bigger, to be able to assimilate that one thousand people. Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR: Absolutely. So going back a little bit is what inspired you to pursue this path? We want to know a little bit more about you to see that baseline. Because I see you're very passionate. You seem to know a lot about the subject. So what made you choose this? Jay Adewole: Wow. So one of the biggest lessons I as a person, entrepreneurship has taught me is that hard work by itself is not a business strategy. I'm an hard worker, I love working hard, you know. But I invested in business. I lost. So losing. actually defined My vision. Because earlier in i I would say it it was easy. to look at success as another business. All the mistakes I made those periods, anytime I now see other businesses going through that same mistakes, I feel a little bit passionate. How can I help them? You know, I I mean, I we charge, but sometimes I really want to even do it for free. I mean, I'm I as a matter of fact, I'm a member of SCORE, which is more mentorship for businesses. Like that's how passionate I got into. I made mistakes. I lost money, I lost business, I failed at business. I went Harvard Business School to go and learn more, you know. I go into business again, failed again, learn more, got an MBA. But one of the things that taught me more than every book I read is those mistakes I've made in business. So that's one thing that defined me. Mistakes define me. That's that same mistake is the gospel I'm preaching right now because I don't want anybody or any business owner to fall inside that same trap. And that's where I introduce the CSS framework. So as an entrepreneur, you can be working. Eighteen hours a day. And still not have a proper structure. One sickness. One sickness can actually I mean one month sickness can actually shut down your business because the business is built around you. And that is where the CSS framework came from. So I would say I learned that within twenty years timeline. Even getting all the degrees couldn't help me with that. It came from a lot of mistakes, a lot of learning, a lot of passion. And that with that, I've been able to help a lot of businesses scale. And through the CSS framework that I've introduced for many years now. And even all my books, you know, the CEO shift, almost all the books I've, you know, written talks about the CSS framework. You know, and it also gives examples of a lot of people, a lot of business owners that have worked with the CSS framework and they've been able to scale their businesses. And that's my my short story. So if you ask me for my success story, I mean My success story was built from failure. Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR: That's right. So you you know, sometimes Jay Adewole: Yeah. Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR: that's just as important, right? To know the direction you're going or which direction to avoid. And that has the same impact sometimes for growing your business. Now, if one of our listeners wanted to work with you, can you explain to us what that journey looks like, that process? Jay Adewole: so I I tell people if you want to work with me, you reach out to me, you can connect with me through LinkedIn or you can check out our website. So but the journey itself is simple as ABC. Once you reach out, we already have the system in place. Once you come with to us or you reach out to me directly, then I need to understand your business. Because we try as much as placebo to work with people that we understand we have to be we have to have common ground. We have to have common faith. It's very, very important. So I can be able to help you. So the goal is for me to be able to help you achieve your goal through using the CSS framework. And once you reach out, tell me we we have to list them first. We want to see all the problems you've been going through and all the successes you have currently. Then we can use the CSS framework to determine what exactly you need. Because we want to know what time or what point in life in the lifetime of your business you are currently in. Are you in the clarity stage? Because some people start businesses, they start their business and they're already in the skill stage. They just jump into the scale stage. They didn't go through the clarity stage. So even if you're in the scale stage and you already jump past, and we see that your business does not have clarity, then we need to sit down and talk about the clarity and help you build clarity. And if we find out that the problem is in the system stage. That probably is jumped, you never build a system. I mean, we're gonna sit down and look at the systems. Because most times a lot of business or businesses or a lot of entrepreneurs, when they start their business, maybe they start in their room, and all of a sudden, they just have this big bang, bum, and their million-dollar company, they did not go through that stage. They because they were still in that clarity trying to understand, and people just love their product and they start buying from them, maybe their services, and their they started making millions of dollars. Most of the time they feel like, you know what, this thing is working for me already. I don't think I need a system. So everything evolves around the founder. So all the founder needs to do is delegate, not delegate past structure or accountability. So it's more like delegation based off of task. So once the the person they delegate the job to for that day is done for that day, then the the the authority returns back to the founder or the owner. Then they delegate again, then returns back to the owner. How about we create that system whereby this person knows what they are meant to do? That person knows what they are meant to do. So nothing gets to you. That means you divide all the shares. Of everything you need to do, you give it to the right people to do it while you relax. I'm not saying you should let your business go. I mean, because a lot of people see their business as their child. So you can't tell them to let it go. But the truth is, we're not gonna have Apple today. If people like Ste Steve Jobs did not get to that point, they have to you know build up a structure to their systems. And same thing with you know Facebook, same thing, I mean different brands. Even X was once owned by somebody else. I think Jack. You know, so and now it is owned by Elon Musk. So the thing is you need to build your system your organization to the point whereby you can even sell, you can even have a great exit. You know, people don't think about that. And that's one of the things we always want to do. When we are dealing with business, we want to hear your story. We just don't wanna just assume, you know. We wanna hear your story and we'll find a solution to your problems. Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR: Now who are the ideal individuals that should be calling you right now? Jay Adewole: So when it comes to the ideal individuals, I always say entrepreneurs. So if you're an entrepreneur, you wanna work with us, just reach out. If you own a medium business, I mean you're a CEO of a company, medium sized business, you can reach out to us. If you own a business, you have employees, but none of your employees know what they are doing. There's no assigned role to them. Or maybe there's an assigned role, but I mean everything still boils down to you. Reach out to us. If you own a business. and you're having a problem scaling, I believe you need to reach out to us. If you also own a business and like the question I asked earlier, and if today, I mean, if the current client customer base you have is 1000, if I give you 10,000, can your business absorb the request? If your answer is no, then you need to reach out to us too, because those are the things that we'll look at, and that's the scale part of it. So If you are new, because most of the businesses we deal with are mostly people who already have a client base already. So, but if you are new and you are trying to build your business and you're in that clarity stage, also, reach out to us. Let's see how best we can work together. So the thing is, I personally I particularly enjoy working with Entrepreneurs will say it's like, Jay, I know there's something bigger here. I just need your help figuring out how to structure it. So if you have a business, you believe so much in the business, I mean, it's looking like you're not sure of the business, maybe it's not going the the way it is. But if you believe in your business, you just need help building structure. Reach out to us. And I mean. Those are the people who really work with. Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR: Gotcha. Now, Jay, would you be able to share with us a client success story that depicts a little bit of the transformation that your work creates? Jay Adewole: I always say this story even in my books. It's about a a client. In the i it's the CEO who is the main client and the co-founder is they were always involved in almost every decision in their business. That means the client communication, operations, follow up, ev even the little team issues, like one team is having a so one team member is having an issue with the other. They're always involved in everything. They were generating opportunity, to be honest, when we look at their books, but growth itself was becoming stressful. Because they don't have structure. So when we started working with together with them, What I told them is you don't have to go and find more customers. You don't need more customers. So, what we did was we wanted to see their business, just like I said earlier. We looked through their business using the CSS framework. I mean, for people who are just joining us, it's called Clarity Systems and Scale. So we look at the business, we look at the company's priorities. We have to cut out their ideal customer. We look at their core offer through the clarity. And we also look at where the owner should actually be spending their time. Because I mean, when they when we first started working with them, the owner was everywhere. The owner was the one who sends out every email must pass through any every I mean the tier level of emails must pass through them. They really want to see everything. I mean, they spend more time in the operations than even the management of the business. And then after we're done with the clarity of how the business should work, then we began putting systems around the business. You know, we looked at how leads will be handled. You know, we introduced them to you know the POV CRM.com, you know, which is a CRM platform that you know has like a system where they can automate things and all that. So we we actually introduced them to that. I mean almost all our all peop the people we work with, we you we onboard them on POV CRM. what we also do is we make sure everything is automated. Everything that needs to be automated is automated and everything that needs to be delegated was delegated. And I would say of this story, the biggest changes we actually introduced to this to that client or even the the the co-founders is for them to understand that just because they are capable of doing something did not mean they should do it. They shouldn't be the one responsible for doing it. We introduce structure. So as the structure itself improved, I mean the owner started getting more visibility into the business. I mean, they have a dashboard. He has a, I mean, the owner has a dashboard where they can see every structure. I mean, we created a system for them whereby every staff member, whatever they imputed, the owner has a dashboard. Now, I mean, it was created with you know code and all that. They can see everything that was done. 10 emails were sent today. So this person was called today. And they it's hosted on their website, they enter with their password and they see everything. And they can click on the task and assign out tasks if they want to to any of the staff members. And we created that. What we did was they were making, let's say, forty percent. After that, building that clarity, building that structure, and helping them scale from 40%. Let me just say they're making like 10 million dollars. In less than six months, after following that structure, it started making way over Fifty sixty miljon. That's the the level they went to instantly because they followed a structure. So the CEO relax, you know. I'm I I still offer business coaching directly with the f for the CEO and I mean we still speak once in a while. We spoke some weeks ago and he's somewhere in Costa Rica having fun while the business is running, you know. And that's that is one of the things I as a as an entrepreneur, I don't just see myself as a business coach or a strategist or managing partner of a consulting firm. I see myself as an entr entrepreneur myself. So I'm working with you hand in hand. We are doing it together using the framework that I have used. I've learned from failure, and I've been able to help a lot of people to create success. And this particular situation reminds me of one thing. The goal itself is not just to grow revenue. The goal itself is to build a business. That can handle the growth. Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR: Well, I would suggest that probably if the individual is is vacationing down in Central America somewhere and the business is still running, that's somewhat of success right there. but but Jay Adewole: Exactly. Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR: with that, Jay, you know, if listeners remember only one thing from today's conversation, what do you hope that message is? Jay Adewole: Just one thing they need to remember is build a business that outlasts you. And that's it. And one thing also, I mean I have to t two to two two words. Try not to also confuse movement with progress. Because your business can actually be making top dollars right now, but you're not really progressing. You're just waiting. I mean, it's the business is just waiting till something just one thing happens. The founder gets sick. Oop open enough. The founder gets older and cannot run the business anymore. The same energy cannot come the same anymore. And that's it. And that's it. Because I believe in one word is you can never You cannot scale chaos. If your business is chaotic already, no matter how much you spend so much on adverse marketing, you cannot scale it. Because you're already it's already chaotic already. So you need to work in the internal. My final analogy is. it's visible when you see somebody who has no ham. For you to say, this person doesn't have a ham, right? So but somebody that that lost their kidney, maybe one of their kidneys, you don't even know. They look LD, they look good. I mean, but you don't know they lost their kidney. All right. So but it's a matter of time before they lose a second one and then you you it now it's too late. To fix it. So now it's better you diagnose yourself, diagnose your business. I mean, I mean if you go to our website, you'll see a a way where you can we have a a button that you can always click on that talks about you know scale board. You can always scale your business to see if your business is doing good or not. And just simple as ABC, then you will see. I mean, if you go to the winner circle website, I'm in winner circle with Jay. dot com. I mean you'll be able to see how you can actually rate your business. It's good it's I mean it's free for you to do it. Just click on it and you can score your business. Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR: definitely great advice because you just never know. And one of the things that I always say, you know, when I'm working with other individuals is the same thing. If you're not growing, you're going to disappear Jay Adewole: Mm. Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR: because slowly, right? Ever the world is moving ahead with you, with or without you. So you need to continue Jay Adewole: Sure. Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR: growing and placing yourself properly. Otherwise, this is it. You're going to lose your business at some point. And But Jay, you know, finally, where can our audience connect with you? Find out more about your work and continue this conversation. Jay Adewole: Alright, so if you wanna connect with me or you wanna connect with the winner circle, just go to the website. I mean everything is there, everything you need to do. So just go to winner circle with Jay. That's the winners plural, winner circle with Jay dot com. Or you can go to the winner circle with Jay dot com slash walk with Jay. Walk with Jay, you know, then you can always like see all the ways you can actually work with me. So if you're an entrepreneur and you're serious about getting clarity around your business. I mean building better systems and also positioning the company. Guys, positioning your company for the next stage of growth. You need to visit the website. And also try to tell me, you know, if you send me a message, Jay at winnercircle with Jay dot com, just tell me you heard me from Glovisor Studio. So or Glovisor of Podcast, so I will know how best we can have the conversation around. And if you also want to connect with me, you can connect with me on LinkedIn by searching Jay Adewole. And you can find everything I'm doing around business coaching at the website, just like I said. And don't just say I I I don't want you to just say hello. You know, just make sure you tell me You're connected from me from here. So I will know I can give you some free gift. I have some free gift on I have some books also for you know for people that wanna that wanna strategize for two 2027 because it's called the entrepreneur the entrepreneur playbook. You know, I have I have quite a number of books that you know it's called the Entrepreneur Playbook for 2027. I mean it's not yet out, it's gonna be out from November. So is actually you know for entrepreneurs the play book tells you where you know resources free resources you can always grab it but I mean we're giving out the digital copy for free. So just shoot me an email at Jay at winnersecogj dot com and I will just send you a copy for free. So I mean but you can I mean it it can be bought on Amazon but I mean you can always get it for free. From me, I'll just send it to you. Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR: That's great. We're gonna have your contact information in in the description for sure, because we wanna make sure that our guests and our listeners make sure they contact you and get that free copy. Jay, thank Jay Adewole: Yeah, definitely. Thank you. Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR: you so much for joining us. we really appreciate your time and and the value you've shared. Jay Adewole: Thanks thanks for having me. Thank you for having me, I really appreciate Joe Abreu - GLOVISOR: You're welcome. Thanks everyone for listening. If this episode inspired you, make sure you share it with someone who needs it. And don't forget to follow the Glovisor podcast, where we continue to have more conversations that make an impact. Till the next time.