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One Leg Up With Get-Looped CEO Chris Lautenslager 1-22-24 · OneLegUpAlex Media

0:02
Here's your host, Alex Derek. All right, well, my next guest
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today is going to help us kick off a year for small businesses and maybe
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inspire those to start their small business in twenty twenty four. Chris, let
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me get this right, Chris, Chris Loudenslager, Is that right? Well
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done? Alex, you're in natural at this. You are the CEO of
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Get Looped, right, but you have a bigger story to tell. So
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first of all, Happy new Year, Happy new year to you, Ellens.
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Thank you. Second of all, Second of all, the reason why
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this podcast one leg Up exists is because we need to highlight more small businesses.
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We need to highlight more CEOs that are doing good for their employees and
0:45
for the community, and so we Get Looped. Tell us about that,
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first of all, and what your goals are with this company in twenty twenty
0:53
four. So there's actually a couple of aspects associated with that, but that's
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story, Alex, and I'm going to start actually from the beginning of how
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I became involved and interested in small businesses. And like so many millions of
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your listeners people that are out in the audience, we grew up with small
1:19
businesses around I grew up with My father owned a small construction company, and
1:26
like so many other construction companies or so many other small businesses, Alex his
1:30
business kind of started by accident. So one day my dad is with his
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brother Ben and they're out over at Ben's house taxing some holes in Ben's driveway.
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Neighbor stops asked them, Hey, would it tacks the holes in my
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driveway too, I'll pay you. Boom, A new business was born in
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America. It's as simple as that. And from that they created family business
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that lasted or were dozens dozens of years, and in fact lasted until the
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construction crisis, the the oil and bargle crisis of the yul the eighties.
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So it started because I was born and raised in a small family. It
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became part of my persona, so to speak. And I remember Alex,
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when I was just a little boy growing up. Anytime, you know,
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I wasn't going to school, didn't matter how old I was. My dad
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was waking me up at four in the morning and dragging, dragging me with
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them to breakfast where all the all the guys and women met that had to
2:46
start the day. And they'd all be sitting around this big table drinking coffee
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and talking about their families and their businesses and well being from Chicago. They
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were also always dallying about how bad they comes were playing that were perennially dogs,
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and it became a community no and then the Pand what really got me
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involved in this was the pandemic because having that community experience and then having it
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taken away with the lockdown and not being able to share with your family,
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share with your neighbors, share with the people within your town. What was
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going on just so damaging on so many different levels. When I saw all
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these small businesses being closed down because you know, we all needed to sacrifice
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to stem the tide, and small businesses business owners that I know, were
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more than happy to make their sacrifice to be part of the team. What
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started making people uncomfortable and we personally ain't was when it seemed like only the
4:01
small business owners were the ones making the secar. I didn't see Walmart,
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I didn't see Walgreens close. I didn't see owned people them fat. I
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saw them all having record profits at the expense of family owned businesses. And
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I just felt that there needed to be a voice that was out there advocating
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and promoting and conveying the importance of small business on the prosperity of our communities.
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Let me tell you about that, because I started to read these quotes
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by higher ups. If you all saying, oh, the small business can't
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keep up, well, why are you blaming the small business for locking them
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down? Why not help them? You know? And I think that's what
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you're trying to say here. Hey, if the government's not going to help
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you, I will kind of thing right. I don't think that we should
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small business owners should not expect that the govern it's going to we do.
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There used to be a common saying in this country collapse. It was small
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businesses at the back of decimation. I never hear them. It's because they
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don't have a voice at the table. They don't have the consolidated funding,
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they don't have the lobbying groups, they don't have the connects to all of
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the all of the very organizations that are that are looking for favors from the
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government. So that's why I'm an advocate of us helping each other. Businesses
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are so fundamental to our units. That's why when I sure I can order
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a book on and I you know. Sure, I can go to a
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big box store, but I'd much rather go to my local bookstore where I
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know uh, Jaden and Tim personally. I walk in, they have my
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books waiting for me that I've ordered over, you know, sent them up
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the links in head Like this book they ordered. I go over and pick
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it up. I spend time with them, they know who. I go
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to a local cope ship, one where the owners are committed to the community,
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where the owners are committed to keep being their store clean and safe,
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where the owners are committed to paying local texts, supporting the schools in the
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playgrounds, and the community services that I'm also sharing them with our fings.
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So it's we can't expect the small businesses to just survive on their own.
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I think it's parad of all of us as consumers correctly that the dollars that
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we spend are so are so powerful. Every dollar that you spend has it
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in and so you can. Sure you could spend it at a at a
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big public, publicly owned company and have those go to some shareholders somewhere else.
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But I'd much rather send those dollars to hire local, to support our
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local tasks, to support our local units. That's a conscious decision, and
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I want to be the boys that goes out there and reminds me that you
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have the power, you have the ability to improve your are This is why
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I have you on because I know that you're you're such an advocate of small
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businesses, and I imagine through get Looped, you're helping other small businesses advanced
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in their in their you know, entrepreneurship, in their business path if you
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will, it's exactly what I'm doing now. So I you know, get
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Looped is an umbrella organization that allows me to be able to be a public
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speaker. I love going speaking at associations or other events to small business owners.
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I also speak to entrepreneurs who own several small businesses common venue for me.
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I'll talk to them about some of the things that some other extraordinary business
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owners that I've had the pleasure. I believe that we're entering a period of
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time of essentials. You know how businesses were being man essential, but that
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was a wake up. You know, the marketplace being just as uncaring as
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a government bureau. Okay, so if you look at Millennium seventy to say
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that the company that they work with or are going to do business, their
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significance in supporting the community, supporting purpose is important to them. That means
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eight out of ten of either your employees or customers believe that your purpose is
9:13
a big deal. So I'm of a perspective that you either start becoming essential
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to your community or you're going to be gone, because these consumers can go
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anywhere they want to see that you care about what's going on in the world,
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that you care about what's going on in their run. It's not just
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about selling product and providing services. It's about supporting each other. That's what's
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going to be I'm sure you know this by now, Chris, but over
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half of our economy in New York State alone is through small business. And
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I'd said on Christmas weekend, hey, shop through the holiday weekends with small
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business. I mean, I this whole small business Saturday. It feels a
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little fake to me in the sense of that's where it ends. But here
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this podcast and with you, it continues beyond that, right very much.
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So I think a weekend or Saturday dedicated to small businesses is kind of of
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that candidate happening. These people are out there every single day. I want
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to go to a store where they don't my where they know my kids,
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where they don't my families. I go to a certain big box stores.
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Now I can't find someone to help me, much less give two cents of
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what I know, what I want, or how they might be able to
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help. I go to the local hardware store exactly not only what I what
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I need, but will show me how to use the damn tool that I'm
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buying so that I can actually get the job done. How about messaging and
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and what I mean by that is a small business community doing enough to message
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itself, either social media or or to compete even with these bigger corporations.
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Is there a messaging disparity if you are between the two kinds of corporation and
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small business. It's such a great, great question. It's because if you're
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gonna try and compete against a large national brand based on resources, as a
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small business will rightly you have to compete on what your secret sauceage, what
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you're super You're gonna have a hard time compaining against someone that has a much
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bigger You can have a hard time against someone who has tighter copit. You're
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gonna have a hard time competing against someone who actually might deliver products to your
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door. And still there that's another story. What you chee the relationships service,
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that's your secrets. That is your supers, not how many basically not
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how many sales. Knowing the people that come into the school. That's what's
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doing your business the right. So your secrets the teeth areas that big box
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stores have don't stand it. They don't stand which and there is a frame
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for connection as you will stand up. There's a story that my life all
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about my father. Growing up. I used to after we go out to
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a broadcasted place called Doors is Dinner, we go to work, and I
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learned how to do every single job at that company, Yell Taving. So
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I managed traffic on busy seas streets, shoveled hot asphalt on something swell during
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summer days, even got to drive like the big huge steamroller. You ever
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see the big huge steam roller. M People like, is that fun?
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Tell? Yes, really it is. But even with them, my favorite
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hard thet job always came to the end with the work was done, and
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my dad would make a point of us going with the customer in person thank
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them for their business. Sure it might seem like a simple gesture everything.
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Be able to take the time, shape their to look them in the end,
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and that to appreciate. That's what made my father's company and the burrow,
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that's where we got all this business for the girls. Same thank you
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for your small business owner. I went to you today. The simple one
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is the therapy of customers. Think them for being a customer. They'll always
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appreciated. You know this, Lad's into my next question then, because clearly
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you learned a lot of your dad. But as a CEO, what else
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have you learned from your father? I mean it seems like you really impacted
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you on your journey to become a leader in many respects. Absolutely, you
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know when and I learned this kind of the roundabound way. My father led
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as an ox North and when he passed, I bought into the bill of
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goods that sold to society. Go to college degree and go to work for
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a company. Try to make as much money as possible to buy the house
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to get the power to be Did you buy the whole build of goods?
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So I did that. I followed the story while that were sold to this
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very big multiple channels. It's all about chasing stuff, getting the stuff,
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going to the best of school, and all of them the story because the
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site. But I pursued that it was the happiest ever it wasn't until I
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actually stepped out said what a while, what is important to me? And
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Dall's part of this is, you know you asked me what I do for
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for some other slaw businesses, I'm offering a course and how do identify your
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personal value? Other words? For me, I have fend values that I've
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identified. These are the things that make me happy, not the not the
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sermon from the mouth kind of world, but the things that make me happen.
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And when I fodeled these, I post one of them was freed.
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I realized that I don't like people telling me what to do. I don't
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like having a boss. I don't like being told that I'm good, dad
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and different simply because some guy with the position hied me in this hierarchy.
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Says so, I love being able to make by own choices that help other
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people, aren't my own path. And by identifying our bad we could actually
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start to say, well, I'm being told that I should go and get
16:30
it hundreds of thousands of dollars get a really good. That's gonna lead me
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to the happiness that I really want to life. All Right, I feel
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like we're getting toward the prosperity loop right now. We'll get to that in
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a second, though, because you just mentioned how your dad went door to
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door basically and thanked all his customers and whatnot. But are you saying that
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nowadays small businesses rely too much on social media to connect? Are you saying
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many they're really not go I'd say that that entrepreneurs love accounts. It's just
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it's just one of those things. And then and the technology that's available today,
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chapp Ai, it's just so analzed. But what I can saying,
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so, I'm not saying that you shouldn't choose it. You have to make
17:19
your presence help, but to depend upon it for your referrals, end conduct,
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for your client development. Over seventy five percent of new business bass generated
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all businesses referral to. Do people have a positive experience at your company?
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That's what the goal is. It's not it's in personal relationships, you know.
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I know, I feel like there's a lot of people that say they're
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tired of corporate America and whatnot. Right, So, what's your advice to
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them is they try and exit out of that and maybe even into an even
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more private sector, which is a small business sector. I mean, is
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that a challenge? Did you find that challenge at all? Were you coming
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from corporate America as well? It was scary. I did corporate and you
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know, I got my NBA at Northwestern. I want to work. I
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worked for someone most prestigious global orientation in the world. Really amazing, interesting
18:26
pieces of work. But it was it was a deal that I thought that
18:30
all the devil devil deal, and it is you gave me a lot of
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money. You get to tell me everything that I need to do, where
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I need to go, when I need to go, what I need to
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sacrific and how to do that. And I thought that was the proper way.
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What are the state being able to make, the city being able to
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have the ability to work? You want business, I'm sure, it's sure.
19:07
It takes a while to generate some brevity so you can start this inside
19:12
of mustle even better. But I had savings, so I was able to
19:18
create my business by dipping in the savings. It's scary, m but ultimately
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I wake up every single excited to go to work. I don't I don't
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read. I can't wait to do the things right. But I know I'm
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making a difference, and I know that I'm doing good in the world.
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I know I'm hopefully so Joel. If you get paid for that doesn't much
19:49
better out. All right, you talk about how you got to dip into
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your savings. Do you find that that everybody's hustling to get people to fund
19:56
their you know, back then, and fund their endeavors. Is there a
20:00
right right way to go about that though? Get funding for your endeavors.
20:07
The best way to get funding for your endeavors to keep profits. Okay,
20:15
as someone who's investing in private, it's not just the idea of it's it's
20:22
the model that you made money. Group to me, you are single,
20:29
bobus be profitable. That's real good kind of like, Okay, thanks,
20:34
don't lend money, so they don't they're gonna get take that, whereas some
20:40
would say, thanks, don't lend your money until you don't need it.
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Send two things with getting funding for the girl businesses, also, we do
20:49
expect to give take that might bear friends, I fear family. All right,
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Well, let me ask you this question because I feel like, as
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we're talking, there's a huge competitive edge small businesses can have over the big
21:04
dog. And you know what that is. They could start recruiting those that
21:07
are tired of the big dogs and working for the big dogs and saying,
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hey, come work with us. You don't want to be in an office
21:12
space, Hey, we'll have you come with us. Is there a competitive
21:17
edge here that we're seeing now? There is, particularly if you have purpose.
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So as I think people want to just self product, they want to
21:26
have a reason for being being involved with. So we're moving into this world
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where they used to be quote nonprofit profit, what profit is considered shareholder experiation?
21:41
Uh? Doct for profit? Was the do gooders? That model is
21:47
being blurred. Okay, your your profit business doesn't have as they if you
22:00
have them your employees that needs to be there there wants and desire. What's
22:10
your customer want? Your employees take their considerations in mind. That's when you
22:15
can start improving people away from other worlds to take without having aid, but
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they have feeling attribution that is invaluable. Chris, you know, I think
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there's a there's always the same keeping the lights on. How do you help
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small business owners do more than just keep the lights on, but really thrive
22:37
in their community. Well again, I help them identify what their values are
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and I talk to them. H when you see gas Okay, dig explit
22:48
who wrote topics which seven years ago, that's second great. Really he says
23:07
that you don't discover your passion, people like, what's my passion? It's
23:14
not a bolt of life. You try your passion on. I got like
23:19
a like a pair of shoe. So this looks interesting. I think I'm
23:25
going to give that a try, see how that feels. Or these people
23:30
need some help over here, and I think I'll give that a little try,
23:36
see how that feels. You'll know soon enough whether it's stick, whether
23:41
or not adding something that you want to to whether I added something that gauges
23:45
and engages your interests. So allow yourself the ability to follom luck with what
23:52
you're doing. The only way to do that to go give them, give
23:56
something. Does this involve the podcast world as well? Like I feel like
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there's seven thousand podcasts around here trying to do something different with their show,
24:06
maybe monetize it. Do you work with podcasters also? I do. I'm
24:11
happy to be able to anybody has any questions in regards to work that I
24:15
do services that you can reach out to the w w W GET dot gm
24:23
P that ill. As I mentioned, I'm creating a class on value.
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I'm happy to believe to talk to you about bringing purpose into your life and
24:37
your business. There's the last game, consult help them profitable. H I
24:45
really believe that we can go over some of that. But to me,
24:52
to join being the business is having your business you're doing. So that's really
24:57
what my focus is. Make sure that you're in a position where you are
25:03
gave what you do money. Com I love I love cracking up in the
25:10
mic and having these conversations. So this is definitely a passion of mind.
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I think you're tapping into that with me today. Chris Latin Sliger, this
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is so great, just been talking with you. The small business owner though,
25:21
can be stubborn, right, so we we think it can be done
25:23
in a month or two months, six months? What kind of patience does
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it have and do you have to have as a small business owner just really
25:30
get this something off the ground. It always takes longer than you think.
25:34
It always takes never reason, do you think you could here is a suggestion.
25:47
People that are get it. There are a lot of older people that
25:52
are retiring that have profit it's just out and usually find a way to buy
26:03
them. There's a whole new world of ownershipship that's going on. I have
26:11
a very good friend. He just bought him of all the things and and
26:18
he's been able to expand a number of clients that are that are our restaurants
26:23
and service providers that are buying his hide. And he took a business that
26:29
was comfortable to buy out the workout and he moved into this and he's back
26:36
home to expanding this. But he's allowing it often to be able to have
26:41
some sausage so that it's fun for some charitable events, supports positive that are
26:47
built the family employs. How it works, you don't have to start to
26:52
stress these other people's experiences all to picking them work they've already done that might
27:02
be short. I know that that's that's always not easy for an owner to
27:07
actually sell their business. So it's a lot of trust in that kind of
27:11
exchange. I'm I'm assuming there. Yeah, it's like I mean, common
27:18
transact because again owners want to have some value work they put in and it's
27:26
not gonna happen with other places, perhaps certain that people take the deal work.
27:37
Obviously you can have the best the world, but unless the two people
27:45
want to execute good will, don't have a problem. So fine, do
27:52
your due diligence to your businesses up sale you're looking to get in short time.
28:03
There's any services that are probably a positive business you know to be Canada.
28:14
I schedule a strategy meeting session with you. That's what this college strategy
28:17
session. So let me ask you this, are you having a lot of
28:18
those this week? Because I feel like at the beginning of twenty twenty four
28:22
people have to are probably very eager around this time of year, every time
28:26
during New Year right to get their business off the ground to start the year.
28:34
Sure, there's a calendar aspect associated here, but I see every day
28:41
is a blessing. I wake up that day is going to be a basic
28:47
day, and what are the one, two or three past that I need
28:52
to do immediately to be able to bring me closer. Still, that's what
29:00
I focused on when you make a chieve for every single day. The priorities
29:07
make the business and success as zeo yourself, and you're probably very busy every
29:15
day. How do you take down time for yourself in a very busy,
29:19
chaotic day. It sounds like you go through, you know, with your
29:22
goals having to achievement one eye. Do you have any downtime? I have.
29:29
I have the greatest life. I feel so love. We're traveling to
29:34
Springs tomorrow the film Festival, going to San San Francisco the following to be
29:42
part of uh Video Cafercy program for recording classes. You have to take for
29:52
the things that you want no one else to do. It makes the time
29:59
in your schedule, take the time, help and I get to do it
30:03
with someone who is amazing. So prioritize the people in their lives. And
30:10
actually, this is the story that I'm going to end on, is that
30:14
people love businesses. Okay, I was at a company had Again. I
30:23
was just turning. I love this was the number one sales person. I
30:32
loved the product of love people. It was amazing. And I'll never forget
30:37
my word birthday and literally on my body birthday, I want employee. It
30:45
would have did any world. Lord, the whole company was there was fantastic.
30:52
Aspired at the very same company. Lesson than the reason I wasn't just
31:02
the only higher sales for through off reason stordin successful. We had to build
31:14
our jobey, I felt that he couldn't man, and he dig yeah,
31:22
without jeopardizing the return. I understand it was a logical business decision. For
31:32
what I learned that business is so fun. Wow. On that note,
31:40
thanks so much, Christopher and Chris. I got Luke dot com so so
31:44
great to meet you man, and we got this again in the in the
31:47
coming months. Okay, I look forward to it. Thank you so much.
31:51
I so appreciate it. I would follow you the very best. And
31:55
I want to thank pod match for connecting us. And yes we will have
31:59
Chris her on again. But that was Christopher Lautenschlager on the Alex Garrett Podcast Network.