Join Patrice Miles, BOP Business Coach, and Austin Lopesilvero, Certified Storybrand Guide at Aspen Studios, as they unravel the power of Storytelling in the latest episode of Tuesday Tools On Purpose at My Business On Purpose Podcast.
Learn about the art of Storytelling, discover how small business owners can leverage it to transform their operations, and gain valuable insights from Austin's expertise. Don't miss out on this insightful discussion that will empower you on your business journey!
Contact Info:
Austin Lopesilvero
Aspen Studios
austin@growwithaspen.com
growwithaspen.com
growwithaspen.com/storybrand
Are you working IN your business or ON your business? Do you have all of the foundational elements that will liberate you from the business chaos? Take the assessment to find out which areas you can grow and improve on.
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Join Patrice Miles, BOP Business Coach, and Nicole Piazza, American Paving Design, as they unravel the power of Monday.com on the latest episode of Tuesday Tools On Purpose at My Business On Purpose Podcast.
Learn about the strategic use of Monday.com for small business owners, gain insights from Nicole's firsthand experience, and discover how this tool can revolutionize your business operations.
Are you working IN your business or ON your business? Do you have all of the foundational elements that will liberate you from the business chaos? Take the assessment to find out which areas you can grow and improve on.
Take our Healthy Owner Business Assessment HERE➡️ https://bit.ly/healthypatrice
Contact Info:
americanpavingdesign.com
843 706 7283
SIGN UP for our Newsletter HERE ➡️ https://www.boproadmap.com/newsletter
For blogs and updates, visit our site HERE ➡️ https://www.mybusinessonpurpose.com/blog/
LISTEN to the Business On Purpose Podcast HERE ➡️ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/my-business-on-purpose/id969222210
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The Doing Mind vs. The Thinking, Solving, Equipping, Delegating (TSED) Mind
We recently had some heroic clients in discussing their transition from the first mountain into the second mountain. All clients coming into the Business On Purpose coaching experience begin at Basecamp where they are equipped and installed with the base-level tools to begin operating their business on purpose.
These tools systematize four primary areas of priority; purpose, people, process, and profit.
At basecamp, imagine each person is getting fitted with the appropriate business harness and then we begin outfitting them with the tools of a written vision story, master process roadmap, subdivided bank accounts and dashboards, and about 23 other tools that are often either missing, or in partial form.
Upon being outfitted and equipped at basecamp, we begin climbing the business owner's first mountain where each of these tools both for the owners and key leaders are implemented and tested.
After proving to themselves the utility of these tools and enduring a few slips and falls, the owner and key leaders then begin to set their minds on the second mountain. While it takes a few years to become equipped and acclimated; owners on the second mountain climb realize that the equipment and testing they received were necessary for the second mountain climb, and yet no amount of training could prepare them for the mindset shift needed to make the important move from the “doer” to the “thinker/solver”.
While in this recent meeting, I was physically watching our clients wrestle in their minds with the death of their “doer” mind and the awkward adolescent growth of their “thinking and solving” mind.
A phrase we remind our heroic owners often is, “You must move from task-leadership to people-leadership.”
And remember, tasks never talk back. Tasks don’t project emotion. Tasks move when you want them to move, and don’t move when you let them sit.
People are very different.
As we worked through this death and new life scenario we stumbled upon a paradox; the doing loop vs. the thinking/solving/equipping/delegating (TSED) loop.
Here is how it works.
For those caught in the doing loop, more doing will always be their answer to challenges that should require thinking/solving/equipping/delegating (TSED) instead.
The doing then cascades into a death spiral of sorts.
Doing then leads to working too long.
Working too long leads to burnout.
Burnout leads to frustration and perpetual negativity.
The negativity is eased briefly due to an increase in short-term income (because the doing produces more immediate response).
The irritation and money then responds with consumption; consuming food, stuff, or anything that will numb the pain of more doing.
The consumption leads to emptiness which breeds bitterness.
The bitterness will spur one of two responses: more doing (leading to more spiraling) or opting out of the business altogether and doing something else.
The doing loop is endless until it is broken either by brokenness, or broken through a willful desire to begin thinking/solving/equipping/delegating.
When an owner decides to forego the easy solution of “just doing it myself” and instead leans into the thinking/solving/equipping/delegating (TSED) loop, then will then break the cycle and find joy.
How?
Think about a small fire that is burning in your business right now. Just one. You could go put that fire out yourself right now. You get the joy of feeling like a micro-superhero if only for a moment and the problem is solved…for now.
The downside is that you have likely left your team feeling inadequate and certainly ill-equipped to handle the problem in the future which means you have signed yourself up for a lifetime of doing.
Or make a different choice.
The TSED model works like this.
Fire starts burning and instead of you rushing in with all of your gear to put it out, you stop.
You see the problem which invites you to think about a solution.
Once you have documented or recorded the solution, you then equip another person to permanently extinguish that fire every time it flares up in the future.
The delegation comes when you actually prepare the training, trust the other person to execute on the training, and then have a set follow-up to get a report back on progress.
You have now shown dignity, humanity, and leadership to another person while saving yourself hours of time and frustration; both of which cannot be reversed. Once time is lost, it is not recaptured. Once frustration is vented, it is out.
Think. Solve. Equip. Delegate.
We don’t need you to be our superhero; you don’t need to shoulder that additional weight. We need you to make time to think, solve, equip, and delegate.
By walking through the TSED loop you create efficiency and empowerment.
The efficiency and empowerment create margin.
The margin creates a profit of time, money, and connection which snowballs into generosity.
Today, you can make a choice to put on the cape of doing, or you can stay in the firehouse and make time to think, solve, equip, and delegate. One leads to a death spiral of frustration, the other leads to joy and generosity, that becomes a work worth doing and liberates you from chaos to make time for what matters most.
If you are ready to get started on the foundational basecamp equipment go to mybusinessonpurpose.com/book and grab copies of my print book, ebook, or audiobook Let Your Business Burn: Stop Putting Out Fires, Discover Purpose, and Build a Business That Matters.
Join Patrice Miles, BOP Business Coach, and Sara Gatewood, Covenant Realty as they unravel the power of Canva Pro on the latest episode of Tuesday Tools On Purpose at My Business On Purpose Podcast.
Discover how Sara leverages Canva Pro to revolutionize her real estate endeavors, unravel the strategic insights for small business owners to harness the full potential of this tool, and gain actionable tips for creating visually compelling content that resonates with your audience.
Are you working IN your business or ON your business? Do you have all of the foundational elements that will liberate you from the business chaos? Take the assessment to find out which areas you can grow and improve on.
Take our Healthy Owner Business Assessment HERE➡️ https://bit.ly/healthypatrice
Contact Info:
Sara Gatewood
Covenant Realty
Instagram @502KYRealEstate
Facebook @502KYRealEstate
www.LiveIn502.com
+1 502-931-4581
SIGN UP for our Newsletter HERE ➡️ https://www.boproadmap.com/newsletter
For blogs and updates, visit our site HERE ➡️ https://www.mybusinessonpurpose.com/blog/
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SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube channel HERE ➡️ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbPR8lTHY0ay4c0iqncOztg?sub_confirmation=1
The influential Andrew Carnegie said, "No person will make a great business who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit."
We just cannot seem to help ourselves. We feel like we have to do it all.
Whether it is a function of a lack of support around us (which is usually our fault for not recruiting well) or an unhealthy sized superhero ego (which is always our fault)...delegation has been a challenge literally since the beginning of time.
Great news though about delegation, when it is done right, it will change the game for you.
John Maxwell said it clearly, “If you want to do a few small things right, do them yourself. If you want to do great things and make a big impact, learn to delegate.”
Let’s start with what delegation is, and what it is not.
Delegation is…
A Transfer of authority
Craig Groeschel said “When you delegate tasks, you create followers. When you delegate authority, you create leaders.”
You’ve heard it before, everything rises and falls on leadership. The height of your leadership determines the height of your team’s leadership. When you transfer authority, you empower someone else to execute and achieve the results.
Delegation is…
A powerful method of growth and margin
I recently read about some of the world’s remarkable leaders like Mark Cuban, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, and some of the habits they carry. Many of them read books for hours at a time. HOW? They have delegated. They realize that the growth of their team and organization are dependent on their own growth so they delegate to build margin for more growth. It is a growth snowball!
Delegation…
Creates a more stable product and process
When you try to do all things every time, they are going to be done with varying levels of commitment and quality.
When you delegate one thing to someone, it will have a greater level of integrity and quality because they focus on that thing while you can turn your entire attention to the highest and best use of your time.
Delegation is not…
Transferring your responsibility
Jocko Wilink’s powerful book “Extreme Ownership” is a punch-you-in-the-mouth reminder that even though delegation pushes down; leadership, authority, and ownership pushes up. This is why training is so crucial and why it cannot be the first thing to go when times get tough. Training empowers delegation which empowers quality and efficiency which then empowers serious competitive advantage and growth.
A lack of training empowers frustration and spirals in a decline to the wheels falling off an organization
Delegation is not…
An Abdication of tasks
Healthy delegation lays out a clear role, step-by-step training, and ongoing accountability and coaching
Unhealthy abdication simply says, “Here go do this” and then moves on without repetitive, predictable, and meaningful training
Abdication is evidence of our own self-centeredness whereas delegation serves others
Delegation is not…
Micro-Managing
It’s easy to micro-manage; simply ask the wrong questions at wrong times
Delegation embraces repetitive, predictable, and meaningful questions at predictable times to the right people who have been repetitiously equipped with the predictable tools
But how?
First thing to do is to write down EVERY SINGLE TASK THAT YOU DO IN YOUR BUSINESS on a spreadsheet. I mean everything!
If you answer phones, write it down. If you respond to social media messages, write it down. If you take out the trash, clean the windows, go on sales calls, sit through industry meetings, bid, estimate, job cost, or order materials...whatever you do, write it down.
Small tasks, big tasks, write it down.
Once you’ve exhausted everything you can think about, then it is time to prioritize those tasks and understand exactly what they are worth and how “delegatable” they are.
The first column after the task could potentially be the most telling.
Your time.
Time is the most valuable commodity that you have. You cannot create more. You cannot buy more. You can not recapture what is lost.
Next to each task write down the average amount of minutes it takes you to complete this task each week.
Next is to rank your “energy” with these tasks.
There are one of three possibilities to indicate when filling out this column that can be done by answering a simple question.
Does this task give me energy, suck me dry, or it is so-so?”
If that task gives you energy when you have completed it, type in the word UP
If the task sucks the life out of you and you leave more drained than when you started, then type in the word DOWN.
If the tasks leaves you thinking, “That’s ok...it’s no big deal” then mark it with a NEUTRAL.
There you go...UP, DOWN, or NEUTRAL
Does it give you energy or does it not?
The third column is to rank the type of task this is. If this is something that ONLY YOU CAN DO, and nobody else could ever possibly do this, then you write a “1”. There should not be many of those by the way.
If this is a task that you did not think could be delegated, but the more you think about it, you think, “Well, maybe so”, then write a “2”.
If this is a task that you know you can delegate, you should have done it a while ago, but you just haven’t, then write a “3”.
You should have WAY more 2’s and 3’s than you do 1’s. If you have a lot of 1s, you need to re-evaluate how important you see yourself in the business...that is not healthy long term. Remember, great leaders cannot go to higher levels without great people.
A list of 1’s may reveal the desire to meddle.
Time for the big reveal. Once ranked, go pick all of your tasks with a “2” or “3” and “Down” written next to it… especially those that take a lot of time. Once identified, ask these four questions…
Who will you delegate it to? (separate slide)
How will you train that person? (separate slide)
How will you track regular progress? (separate slide)
When will you get started? (separate slide)
The final missing piece to a simple and powerful training process for you and your team is IMPLEMENTATION.
I will take a half-baked plan with full implementation versus a perfect plan with half-baked implementation.
I quote Joe Calloway all of the time because it is so powerful, “Vision without IMPLEMENTATION is hallucination”.
If you meet with your team on a regular basis to review what you have delegated, while also delegating new tasks, it will work. If you do not share meet, it will not work.
Start delegating and stop belly-aching.
I’m getting to a point in my coaching career where it can feel like I’m on a carousel. I meet heroic business owners all the time and it can feel like Groundhog Day, which was conveniently last week, as I hear some of the mistakes they are making. Many of them ask, “Thomas where are we at risk?”
I figured if I’m having that conversation with several business owners each week, so why not have it with all of you?
So thanks so much for joining today, it’s Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here ready to dive in on the 3 Ways contractors are putting their business at risk.
No, I’m not talking about dodging taxes or having poor quality, or failing to build team culture. Although those are important, I want to spend some time on the ones I see most frequently putting businesses at risk across the country.
The first one I want to talk about is this…not knowing how expenses affect your bottom line. I’ve talked about this in the past, but it rears its head all over the place, and here are a few areas I see it.
Firstly, hiring. We look at industry standard instead of what the business can afford. It feels too intimidating to actually build out a Pro Forma and identify what happens to our cash flow when we hire, so we come up with a random number that is in no way based on our business's performance and we decide that we will just have to do more work. How much work? We have no clue, but we’ll know it when we see it. If other businesses can afford to pay it, then surely we can too! Sound familiar?
Other areas I see it are in debt payments. We buy a truck or skid steer or scissor lift and don’t think through the ramifications of long-term debt payment. Or on the flip side, we need it for a few jobs and we go out and buy one instead of just renting it on the 3 jobs we need it and it really affects our cash position long term.
This is KILLING businesses every single day. We don’t forecast out our revenue and expenses in any kind of meaningful way, so we have to fly blind and we end up killing our potential profit downstream.
So, what to do about that? Build out a reliable forecast with projected revenue, cost of goods, payroll, nonpayroll expenses, and any other random expenses that will pop up like insurance, tax payments…etc.
Build a running tally of projected Net Income and then use those numbers to tweak when adding expenses like hires or equipment purchases. Can you hit your numbers with the new expenses? If not, what does revenue need to be to hit those numbers? Is that realistic? It’s a game you have to play where every decision has a reaction. But you, the business owner, need to be on top of it.
The second way I see businesses at risk is not giving and writing down crystal clear job roles for their team.
It’s the area I see things get dropped more than any other. We have 4 people who have overlapping job roles and no understanding of where their responsibilities start and stop. So you, then, end up with 4 people doing things slightly different, or human nature takes over and they let the one person who truly cares handle the most important parts. That person then gets burned out as the weight of the business falls on their shoulders and they leave.
This sound familiar? Absolutely it does! We expect people to know, mainly because we just wish they would take the initiative to figure it out for themselves, we expect people to know what we want them to do! And yet, it rarely works out for the better.
We have to build out an Organizational Chart that maps out responsibilities. And maybe it’s a great time for you to rebuild job roles to refine your operations instead of lean on the way you have always done it. Maybe it’s time to get in a mastermind group or ask a coach to walk alongside you and point out things you don’t see because you’re stuck in a rut!
Once you have the team mapped out, you may need to build a flow chart from Awareness of your business to closed sale and then see what are all of the tasks that need assigning. It takes time, but imagine how much clarity, authority, and purpose it would give your team to know exactly what it will be held responsible for and to be able to compensate on value to the business. Oh, it would be freeing for the whole team!
Lastly, I see businesses at risk in the way they don’t clearly articulate what will get them to their long-term vision. This may sound complex, but it’s not intended to be so. I see businesses chase after deals or projects that they have no reason to chase after because they don’t have a clearly identified plan to get to their vision. So they add a massive remodel or a new development, or maybe a completely out-of-the-blue maintenance division just to grow revenue.
It’s opportunity-driven, not vision-driven. Months down the road, the lead source dries up or they quickly realize it’s not as profitable as they hoped and they are left backtracking to get back to who they were in the first place.
It’s why we spend so much time on Vision story. We want a bulletproof plan that will lead your business where you want rather than just chasing after any shiny object opportunity that happens to catch your attention and happens to offer the promise of profit.
There’s so much to think through here, but if you can get laser-focused on what you want to offer from a product and service standpoint, and then stay locked in with that, you stand a much better chance at reaching your vision than allowing every distraction that passes by to knock you off course.
I see it every week in the coaching world.
Alright so let’s recap, write these down, and make sure you aren’t suffering from 1 or all of them.
Number 1, not knowing how expenses affect your bottom line, Number 2 not giving and writing down crystal clear job roles for their team and number 3, they don’t clearly articulate what will get them to their long-term vision
Think through those and please, let us know if we can walk alongside you in those. You are not alone! And you’re not silly or ineffective as a leader for failing at any one of them! They are tricky and they take work to navigate around and through them.
But the way they set your team up for success when you can effectively manage them, that’s running a business you can be proud of.
Hope you have a great day!
Join Patrice Miles, BOP Business Coach, and Michele Williams, Pay Proudly, as they unravel the power of "Pay Proudly" on the latest episode of Tuesday Tools On Purpose at My Business On Purpose Podcast.
Delve into the essence of "Pay Proudly" and find out how small business owners can leverage this game-changing tool.
Are you working IN your business or ON your business? Do you have all of the foundational elements that will liberate you from the business chaos? Take the assessment to find out which areas you can grow and improve on.
Take our Healthy Owner Business Assessment HERE➡️ https://bit.ly/healthypatrice
Michele Williams
Pay Proudly
hello@payproudly.com
SIGN UP for our Newsletter HERE ➡️ https://www.boproadmap.com/newsletter
For blogs and updates, visit our site HERE ➡️ https://www.mybusinessonpurpose.com/blog/
LISTEN to the Business On Purpose Podcast HERE ➡️ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/my-business-on-purpose/id969222210
SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube channel HERE ➡️ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbPR8lTHY0ay4c0iqncOztg?sub_confirmation=1
Meet (Anad Rolyat)
Construction supply business serving a local region
(Anad Rolyat) Female owner, married with two children
Retail and supply business serving a local region
Been in business for 11 years
Massive reputation for community engagement
Working 6.5 days per week
Thinking about work even when at home
The bigger problem was this…when we reviewed her 2015 P&L…here is what it said…
$5mm worth of sales…
$50k of Net Profit (1%)
1%!
$5mm worth of effort, work, marketing, sales, coordination, fear, worry, concern, frustration, stories, and people…
$50k worth of Net Profit to show for it…she could go work for someone else and yield far more in far less time.
TO add insult, Anad’s employee turnover was similar to a Taco Bell…
Employees coming and going, turning over like a car that just would not crank.
Anad was suffering from a variety of ills that plague the majority of business owners.
Only 4% of businesses ever see their 10th birthday?
NO…#1 reason is = they get tired and pull the plug
Tired of hoping that next employee hire will fix everything and then left feeling broken
Tired growing sales and rarely seeing or enjoying the profit
Tired of being blind sided by the constant details of their business
Tired of showing up to events hoping for a silver bullet and realizing that the only silver bullet available is that is relentless implementation of the basic fundamentals how business operates.
Everytime you feel momentum, you are short circuited by chaos lurking around the corner in your blind spot.
“But I don’t have a blind spot” I didn’t think I did either.
But you do…
The human eye has a location that cannot pick up light even why the eye is wide open…google it.
I want to reveal four business blind spots that we all suffer from, and what you can do to solve them so that you can…
Find and retain talent
Grow your CASH profit (not just your P&L)
Be liberated from chaos to make time for what matters most
FIRST blind spot is our unspoken commitment to chaos…chaos has almost become a defacto strategy in our day to day business
“Scott, I’m so addicted to chaos I don’t know what I would do if things were slow and quiet!”
Khaos = Chasm or a gaping hole.
The sweat, effort, attention, and focus you give chaos is guaranteed to return very little long term.
SOLUTION #1 Commit to clarity over chaos. How?
Clarity comes by illumination, and illumination comes through light and understanding foundational things
Many of us started a biz without even considering how the organism of a biz is built
CONSTRUCTION OF A BUSINESS
5 Foundational Cornerstones
Vision
Mission
Values
Team Meetings
Hiring Process
Concrete Slab of documented processes
4 Systems (walls) of a business: Marketing, Sales, Operations, and Administration
Stop obsessing over your product, and commit to building your process
TRUTH: “Your product is not your product…your process is your product.”
ACTION → write a clear and compelling vision of where your business is going is seven categories
SECOND blind spot is micro-management
We say micro-management, but no one has defined it.
Even The Office tried to get it right, and here is how it sounded, (RIP AUDIO FROM THIS YOUTUBE (:00 to :13) (INSERT BLANK SLIDE)
Why does talent fly fly away?
Is it because nobody wants to work anymore? NO…millions of people want to work and want new challenges
It is because they don’t want to be babysat, or left all alone…they want leadership, and leadership is not micro-management.
They showed the RPM’s of great leadership…
Repetition - they did the right things over and over and over
Predictability - they provided stability by doing those repetitive things
Meaning - and they baked a professed meaning into the repetition and predictability
I want you to think about your situation.
Would you be accused of doing meaningful things, repetitively, in a way that creates the peace of predictability?
Or…
Would you be accused of reacting to small fires, chaotically, in a way that makes your team, your customer, and your partners confused?
One simple way to avoid micro-management is to simply ask the right questions at the right time and avoid the wrong questions at the wrong time.
The THIRD blind spot is admitting how much time is wasted everyday…
Putting out fires that would put themselves out
Recreating the wheel that could easily be delegated
You bring someone new in who has “experience” and you expect them to know how to…
Run a job like you run a job
Run a report like you run a report
Talk to a customer like you talk to a customer
It must be trained at EVERY level of your business.
Coach Bill Walsh is one of the most Repetitive, Predictable, and Meaningful coaches in the history of the NFL.
In a book Coach Walsh co-authored he shares that he was so meticulous about scripting that…
he would script the first 10-15 plays of every game
He scripted how the 49er’s receptionists answered the phones
Is the first 10 to 15 days of a new employee scripted day by day?
Or do we practice the more popular strategy of “throwing them to the wolves”?
And excusing it with “well they said they had experience!”
Or hiding behind the excuse “that’s just common sense!”
Potential employees can smell chaos, and all existing employees will eventually run away from chaos at their first opportunity.
Want to retain the team you have so that it doesn’t cost you a minimum of $10k to $20k per lost employee?
SOLUTION #3 is to create a Master Process Roadmap so you can move to higher value tasks.
ACTION → Write out a simple Master Process Roadmap, and brain dump every possible process you can think of.
Review the MPR weekly during your team meetings and pick one process and take 3 to 5 mins to train on it every week.
You will bypass the crippling blind spot of wasting so much time, and create clarity for your team.
CLARITY will keep your team more than any other strategy.
The Final Blind Spot is the myth that all money is your money.
We all suffer from the same challenge as business owners. When a receivable comes into our one or two or three bank accounts, our brains believe that most if not all of it is ours.
And because it is all lumped into 1, 2, or 3 accounts we feel way more cash heavy than we really are.
Anad was generating about $420,000 EVERY MONTH…and yet only about $20,000 of it was actually hers to retain BEFORE taxes, depreciation, etc. $420,000 → $20,000
Her brain said she was rich…her bank sent a very different message.
Ever feel like the front door of your business is really small (where the money comes in)...
And the back door is twice the size and WIDE OPEN?
How can you increase your cash, and actually not have to increase your Total Revenue?
You must begin a) subdividing every dollar that comes in, and then b) directing those subdividing dollars into their individual homes.
Do this over time and track it every week…you will watch your cash so it doesn’t leak.
Anad was totally unaware of her blind spots, but once she allowed someone else to open her eyes to them, she implemented these four solutions, and today…
employes 65 people,
has 5 locations
has a net income to sales of 9% (AND THE CASH to prove it)...up from 1% (with no cash)
Every year takes 4 to 6 weeks away from her business while it grows without her
Are you ready to be liberated from the chaos of your blind spots and creating a culture where people want to stay?