Does your business rely on you... or your system?
Employee-dependent businesses, lack of trust for employees, and never taking the time to systematize... so many things to get to this morning. Happy Friday friends I hope it’s been a great week. Thomas Joyner here with Business on Purpose.
We do a business owner lunch about once a quarter or so with businesses we have zero connection to. It’s so much fun as there’s really no expectation other than to invest back into some new businesses and make some new connections.
Yesterday I sat down with about 8 business owners and we began to talk all about Delegation... the goods, the bads, and the uglies associated with it. It was powerful and they left with some practical ways to own delegation in their businesses and left with multiple tasks to systematize and train on after they choose to delegate.
We were moving until we hit a roadblock. One of the business owners brought up the frustration of feeling like there were several things that he couldn’t delegate. “What do you mean by that?” I kind of asked him to go a little further in-depth.
“Well, estimating is probably 80% of my job. There are so many variables. So many things you have to know and things I can’t really train on to get this off my plate.”
I agreed with him for a minute but then asked this question.
“So what happens if something happens to you?”
You see, that’s what we have to think about. When we are the business, we’re severely limiting the ceiling we can achieve. Severely holding our business back from reaching its potential. But, what happens if something happens to us and we can’t estimate for two weeks, a month, 6 most? Does this business just stop estimating? Especially in times of COVID... we have to think these things through.
“The challenge,” I said, “is to get people to buy into your system, not buy into you.” Salespeople want to sell themselves first and foremost. Because oftentimes they view sales as someone’s not buying what I’m selling, they’re buying me.
While that sells a ton at first... you’re basically selling your time at that and becoming incredibly vulnerable as a business. But... when you can create a system that people are buying into, a customer experience that is a competitive advantage, then people aren’t coming to you for you, they’re coming to you for your system. Which, in turn, sets others up to help carry the load of estimating, bidding, coaching, and whatever complicated operations you may have.
It’s no different from when I started here at BOP. Scott was the face of this business for 7 years. When you called for business coaching you wanted Scott. And he is AMAZING at it. But think about this…
Think there aren’t a ton of different variables in our business? We coach businesses all across the country and world, in every different industry (in a time of pandemic I might add) and there’s problem-solving that goes into every coaching session. It’s a training nightmare getting me up to speed.
But here’s the thing Scott saw a while back. He doesn’t have to train me on 5,000 different variables, he just has to train me on our system. He put the time in to create a system that works industry-wide and then pushed me to focus on learning and implementing our system.
And the verbiage changes right. No longer is it…” Hey, come to me for coaching and we’ll get you straightened out.” It’s, “Hey, we have to get you in our roadmap to get you moving the right direction.”
You see the beauty and the power and the secret sauce, if you will, should be your system. That’s what unlocks almost unlimited growth. So now, it almost doesn’t matter who the coach is, the system is intact and the coach walks you through our system.
So, here’s the challenge for you. How do you build that system where you currently are? It doesn’t just happen. But...if you want your business to be able to thrive if something happens to you, for your employees to be able to run without wondering if they’re doing the right things if you want to rip the lid off your potential and allow for huge amounts of growth... PERFECT YOUR SYSTEM!
Or at least get started. Yesterday we talked a ton about just getting started. Because the perfectionist in us wants to say that if we don’t get it perfected quickly then it’s not worth doing. No, Scott took 6-7 years building this system, and it’s still changing today as we learn and re-implement. But we wouldn’t be where we are today had he not written it down and started creating it.
Don’t let it scare you... but also don’t believe the lie that you can’t get things off of your plate. It’s just not true.
Hey, if you haven’t already subscribed to our podcast or YouTube channel... check out my business on purpose on both platforms. So much great content coming out weekly!
Have a great weekend y’all and let me know if you ever want to connect.
Cameron Herold Interview
Hosted by:
Scott Beebe
Founder | Head Coach
Business On Purpose
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Is your success in spite of you?
So often there are so many variables linked to success, so how do we know which ones were the real reason behind it all? Well, that’s what we’re going to talk about this morning. Happy Monday y’all, Thomas Joyner with business on Purpose here.
I love meeting with new businesses and asking them what they attribute their success to. A couple of weeks ago I was meeting with a friend who ran a mortgage office and he said something that struck me.
We were talking about the Mortgage business and how on fire it has been recently. Clearly, he had a great year and originated a record number of loans for his branch. I started asking him what was behind that. He said a few things I expected like, “Well the rates were so low, people’s buying power jumped this year,” or, “so many people moved south due to the pandemic and needed a lender”, or even, “everyone and their brother decided to refinance their homes this year to lower their rate.”
All that stuff was predictable. But, what I appreciated was what he said next. He said, “Thomas, if you didn’t succeed in the mortgage industry this year, you probably can’t make it. It was almost too easy. This year we succeeded IN SPITE of ourselves, but the true measure is going to be next year where we have to succeed BECAUSE of ourselves.”
Now that’s a heck of an observation. You see, he realized that this year’s performance had very little to do with the effectiveness of his business. It didn’t have to do with the processes or workflow or even the customer service. Sure, that stuff helped, but the waterfall of business was flowing so strongly, that they didn’t have to be great at what they did in order to succeed.
But next year, when the pipeline is a little less strong, when the refinance market slows down and everyone has the rate they are after, the competition really kicks in. The playing field is narrowed so to succeed, it has to be ON PURPOSE!
I thought about that in the context of this pandemic. Are you ready for the year after the pandemic? Have you been living in chaos mode so long that you’ve lost your advantage? So when the pipeline starts to slow down a bit, your processes aren’t ready to keep the sales moving forward?
You see this is why we’re so passionate about systems and processes. They are tested in the midst of the fire, but they are perfected in the calm. Their worth is truly realized when there is nothing else to fall back on.
So, before it’s too late, where are the holes in your processes? Where do you need to take some time to work ON your business, so that your business is ready to handle what this year will inevitably throw at you?
You have to have a plan!
I loved what my friend said. They weren’t just expecting this year to go off without at hitch but were going back to customers and asking how they can improve by sending surveys. They were poking holes in the customer experience to make sure that, this year, they succeeded because of their systems and processes.
One thing we say around here all the time is, “There’s no competition for a well-run business.” And we truly believe that. The day you commit to that is the day you stop succeeding in spite of yourself and truly build a competitive advantage that keeps you in front for the long haul.
If that doesn’t make sense, reach out... let’s have a conversation. We want you to succeed because of yourself. To build a business free of the chaos! One that you can be proud of and not have to worry as much about the external factors blowing your business around.
Hope you guys have a great week! Make sure to follow my business on purpose on YouTube and subscribe to our podcast. Man, there’s so much good stuff on there.
Take Care guys.
Four Tools To Help Resolve Conflict At Work
It was silly; grown adults yelling and screaming at an umpire for a bad call... at a tee-ball game.
Why? Why do we lose our minds and create conflict?
Conflict is literally to strike together.
Think about metal grinding together... conflict... parks... explosion.
We are people with emotions. We are people with opinions. We are people with varying perspectives, worldviews, tendencies, and biases.
It is only logical then if you put two people together in an emotional situation where opinions can be expressed, or biases can surface; explosion may not be far behind.
My first manager at Pfizer Skip Clarkson used to say, “speak to people the way they wish to be spoken to.”
That mindset is our foundational rally cry when discussing the importance and power of the DISC profile. Understanding where a person is on the DISC graph gives you incredible empathy and intelligence when having the right conversations with the right people.
It is not our nature to think about another person when responding or reacting to a situation. We are bent to be me-first thinkers. What is in it for me? What does this mean for me?
It is not surprising that when two, me-first people connect, an explosion is imminent.
But what happens when explosion is the outcome? What happens when the tension of conflict gets red hot. How do we cool that tension, and repair any fractures or brokenness that comes?
We always say, life and business necessarily intersect. You can’t have something happen at work and then successfully “leave it at work” in the same way that home-things follow you straight to work.
John Ussery, who oversees business development at Shoreline Construction in South Carolina, said this recently in one of our coaching meetings, “You can’t change someone’s mind. But you can build rapport, offer empathy, and give them new information so they can change their own mind.”
In other words, the goal is not to try harder, yell louder, talk faster, cry harder, withdraw sooner, or demand more for less.
Instead, your goal is to be a stage-builder.
Stage-builders set a stage for which others have the opportunity to perform.
Stage-builders get very specific instructions from the performers quietly and behind the scenes so they can create the right atmosphere for the show to wow the crowd.
It is impossible for the stage-builder to win if the performer does not win. But if the performer wins, the stage-builder automatically wins every time.
The entire goal of a stage-builder is to, again as Ussery put it, “de-escalate a combustible scenario.” In other words, set the stage so the performer is in position to wow the crowd... then we all win.
In conflict resolution, being right is not the goal, instead, setting the right stage is the aim.
There are four tools to discover that we will equip you with to stock your emotional and relational toolbelt that will allow you to minimize the pain and discomfort of conflict, and instead build relationships that bring mutual joy and value.
The first of these four tools is listening.
Chris Voss in his book Never Split The Difference says, “it all starts with the universally applicable premise that people want to be understood and accepted. Listening is the cheapest, yet most effective concession we can make to get there.”
Listening is discovering, finding out new bits of insight, information, and perspective.
Listening is not thinking while the other person is talking and missing everything they are saying or having your arms crossed and eyes down like a six-year-old. Listening is not, showing apathy, having an attitude of “it’s fine”, or being selective in what you hear.
Active listening requires you to use your EARS...
The second tool of resolving conflict is mirroring; simply repeating the last 3 to 5 words of what the other person just said.
For instance: “you really frustrated me when you cut me off in that meeting”. You respond, “I cut you off in that meeting?” They correct, “well, I felt like my point wasn’t made yet.”
Mirroring forces more details. The goal of mirroring is to allow the other person to keep talking... and talking... and talking. Many times, they don’t want to be right... they just want to know that you are listening with your EARS!!!
Voss quotes Psychologist Richard Wiseman who studied restaurant servers and found the average tip of waiters increased by 70% using mirroring versus those just using the positive reinforcement of “great”, “awesome”.
The third tool of conflict resolution is labeling allowing you to verify the emotions of another person. Voss says, “give someone’s emotion a name and you show you identify with how that person feels.”
Labeling connects you to a person much faster than traditional “get to know you” methods
Voss gives us three phrases to use in your toolbox for labeling…
The final helpful tool to resolve conflict is simply your voice. Your voice can speed things up, or slow things down.
Remember again, rarely is a person defending the emotion they feel on the outside... but instead are instead trying to deal with the turmoil that is happening on the inside. Your goal is to dig that up. We’re not looking to put out the smoke... we want to blanket the fire.
When you are intentional about using these four tools, then you can reasonably hope for two outcomes; empathy and rapport.
Empathy is the capability of sharing someone else’s feelings, and rapport is a close harmonious relationship.
In using these four tools to resolve conflict, our goal is not to be right... but instead to speak to others the way they wish to be spoken to.
Do you let yourself dream about your business?
The same old thing... day after day. Nothing exciting on the horizon. Nothing new to speak of. Sound familiar? Great, let’s talk about how to change that. Happy Friday friends, Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here.
I had a mentor in Young Life that told me something 5-6 years ago that changed my life. Now I like change, by nature. I go looking for it. I like something new and different every day, so systems and routine and schedules taste bitter in my mouth, even though I know how beneficial they are to me and my productivity.
I went to a meeting for all of our regional Area Directors and the guy speaking to us was asking us if we dream. And not just practical dreams, but big, elaborate dreams. Dreams that kind of take your breath away and make you go… ”Man, if that really happened, it would change everything! For the better.”
You see, I think we get so stuck dealing with the fires going on around us, that we forget to dream of a different way of doing things. Or, we get so stuck with one part of our business, that it robs us of the ability to dream about what else we could offer as a product or service. We lose our ability to just wonder...what if?
As I sat there in the meeting I realized that I was in that boat. I hadn’t dreamed anything really BIG in a while. The speaker went on to talk about a meeting he sets with himself at 2 pm every single Friday. He calls it his “New/Next/Nap” meeting.
It’s exactly what it sounds like. He blocks out an hour at the end of every week on Friday afternoon at 2 pm. If someone tries to meet with him, hey I’m booked at 2 that day. It’s non-negotiable. And he does one of three things. He dreams about something “New”, something that could come “Next,” or some days he’s so beat, he just takes a quick power nap to recover from a crazy week.
This was a man who was responsible for 100’s of people, that made a meeting every single week to dream or take a nap. There was very little on the agenda. Some days he would dream about starting Young Life in a new town, so he would get in his car and drive over there to pray at a local high school. He might walk in the principal’s office just to meet them and see what happened.
Other days he would just make a phone call or two to see if anyone had any connections or just start writing down thoughts on what’s next. But here’s the cool thing. The growth and things that were brought about from one hour every Friday was game-changing. New ministries were started, new teams built, new plans were hatched to reach new communities. And some days he just realized his limitations and took a nap. Because he realized to be his best he couldn’t burn out.
You think... well that works in a ministry setting, but we have stuff to get done. I can’t just daydream and actually run a profitable business.
Oh really???
Google has recently started something called the 20% Project. They allow (and in some cases mandate) their employees to use up to 20% of their paid hours at work, working on personal projects. Working on things that may go nowhere. On innovating, developing...and DREAMING.
So, if it works for Google... one of the largest companies in the world, why can’t it work for you?
Don’t get so locked into the day to day that you can’t dream about a new product or service or a new business idea. It’s why we build it into our Vision story. We want you always innovating and always poking holes in your workflow so you can continue to get better at what you do.
So get into your Weekly Schedule. Start making time for it. I’d be surprised if it wasn’t life giving to you. You see, we don’t start a business so we can do the same thing day after day until we die. No, we get into business because we see that we can do things a better way from the get go.
And yet, somewhere along the way, we lose that.
So here’s my challenge today. Next week, go ahead and schedule your “New/Next/Nap” meeting with yourself. Fight to keep it on there and not push it aside. Be consistent with it over the next month or two. I guarantee your business will benefit from it... even if it’s just having a more rested, more productive owner.
Have a great weekend everyone and if you haven’t subscribed to our YouTube channel or our podcast, search my business purpose and join the family. We’re releasing new content there just about every day!
Take care!
What To Know Before Entering A Business Partnership... And Why Many Don’t Work
I’ve heard it said many times that “the only ship that doesn’t sail is a partnership”.
Why?
People.
We’re emotional creatures. We have shifting thoughts, ideals, perspectives, and interests.
What excites us today may not excite us tomorrow. For those business owners who are married, you already realize that marriage is a lifetime process to work at and build. Partnerships are not much different from the perspective of setting expectations.
The emotions of a partnership can range from relief to appreciation to frustration and even so far as paranoia.
Partnerships are mysterious. If a partnership is 50/50 then what happens when there is no consensus on an issue?
Typically, partners will push the can down the road until... BOOM, explosion.
Partnerships can work when great care is taken to make them work.
Here are a few things that need to take place before a partnership is ever entered into.
First, both partners must share a vision. If two partners have two visions, then they are likely to compete for resource and energy pushing the vision they most align with. A partnership with two visions has no vision at all.
Second, both partners must preemptively have hard discussions. How will ownership be divided? What day to day role will each partner play in the business and what is the fair market compensation for that role? Do you agree on the debt tolerance of the business? What about time commitments, non-competes, intellectual property, and entity endgame (sale, cash flow)?
These conversations are better discussed prior to the launch of the partnership instead of post-startup, or even worse, not at all.
Third, partnerships need to be mutually aligned and very aware of each personality within the partnership. Is one partner passive and the other active? Is one partner a driver and the other more compliant? Is one partner more loose to laws and regulations where the other partner is a stickler for compliance?
A partnership must function at the same speed... together.
Fourth, partnerships must discuss and agree on the financial details like reinvestment, debt, compensation, and draw percentages.
Running pro formas and budgets beforehand can save a lot of time, headache, and frustration on the back end.
Finally, partnerships must have a set weekly time they meet to discuss the business part of the business. Even better if these meetings have a set list of questions that the partners ask each other.
Questions like, what blind spots do you see? What opportunities are we missing? What support do we need to be extending to our team and customers?
These are hard things. Partnerships should only exist where the skill of one partner fills the gap for the lack of that skill in the other partner. If not, it is likely best that you stay away.
Ships are meant to sail. Partnerships often sink, but it doesn’t mean they all do.
A business coach is well placed to help mediate the regular communication of partners. Every partnership needs a dedicated, long term coach.
Who is a step ahead of you as an owner?
Do you have a business mentor? Why do you even need one? Let’s talk about that today... Good afternoon y’all! Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here.
When I started in Young Life, who I worked for almost a decade. I’ll never forget it. The first meeting we had with our Regional staff, they asked us to fill out this form and send it back to them. They asked for two names. One name of someone who’s a peer. Someone who’s praying for you, who knows you well, and who is walking alongside you as a friend.
Now, that one was easy for me. I had some great friends and had no problem thinking through 4 or 5 names to write down.
The second thing it asked for is a mentor’s name. And they wanted their phone number and e-mail so they could check-in with your mentor from time to time. I kind of broke out into a cold sweat as I realized I didn’t have one. I went and asked my boss about it and he said, “Hey, that’s fine for today, but you need to have one by the end of the month.”
So, I came home from the meeting and immediately started thinking about who might be willing to mentor me. I had to humbly go up to that person, tell them why I was asking them this, and then ask them to start meeting with me once or twice a month.
Here’s what I quickly came to realize about this relationship. It started off a little awkward, but as we met every other week for lunch, I soon began to feel so comfortable that everything topic-wise was on the table. Relationships, work, faith, masculinity, family, fitness... ANYTHING.
And I had someone that was pushing me to be the man that I wanted to be.
Now, if that worked in my personal life, why shouldn’t it work in the business world? I think sometimes we believe a bunch of lies about business owners. We believe that they’re too busy. I couldn’t disagree more. We make time for what we value.
I also think that sometimes we’re not humble enough to ask for help. If you’re a business owner it means that you have drive and can take initiative and are probably incredibly talented. But can you be humble enough to ask for help? Can you be humble enough to let someone in and actually take the advice they are giving? That can be a huge challenge.
The last thing I’ll say is I think we believe the lie that we’re the only business that has these issues. Here’s a trade secret...you’re not the only one struggling with employees, or cash flow or training, or vision... OTHERS JUST LEARN TO HIDE IT BETTER!!!
Trust me, there is not a problem that your business is experiencing, that someone else hasn’t already walked through and dealt with. And probably learned both the WRONG way to deal with it and the RIGHT way to deal with it. Don’t get stuck feeling alone in your problems.
So, how do you go about finding a mentor or a coach for your business? Well, find someone who’s business looks like what you want yours to look like. When I needed a mentor, I looked for someone who’s marriage I respected and who was a step ahead of me in life.
That process was simple, I went up to them and just said hey, I respect who you are as a person, as a man, and as a leader. I’ve been wanting to have someone speaking into my life and just someone I can bounce things off of a couple of times a month. Would you be willing to do that?
Maybe in the business world, it goes something like this…” Hey, I’ve always respected your business and your leadership. Could I take you out to lunch once a month and just pick your brain on some of the stuff going on in my business? I need some help.
People are encouraged to see they’re respected. People want a platform to give back and to encourage others a step behind. And here’s the thing... if they say no, ask someone else! They aren’t rejecting YOU, it may just not be the right time.
Everyone needs a mentor or a coach. Can you be humble enough to ask for one?
Think about great athletes, great writers, great leaders... they’re almost always directly linked to a great coach, mentor, or group of individuals surrounding them and offering feedback.
You don’t have to do it alone.
We tell people all the time, whether you hire us, or not, hire a coach or find someone to speak into your life. It’s the only way to get where you want to go as a business owner... and a person.
Here’s the last thing I’ll say. When you have a mentor or business coach, turn around and do the same for someone else. There’s always someone a step ahead of you and always someone a step behind. Be for someone what you want someone else to be for you.
Have a great weekend y’all! Don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube and podcast for some incredible content every week.
Take care.
Are you putting in the work?
What separates the good businesses from the great ones? The ones that get by from the ones that excel. Well, let’s talk about that this morning... Happy Monday friends Thomas Joyner here with Business on Purpose.
My wife and I tested positive for Covid this week, so I’ve been ripping through some books. I’ve loved it as I’ve read a book for fun, one for education, one for growth in my faith and I can just kind of bounce back and forth between them.
Now, I married a girl from Kentucky, a state known for its bourbon and, naturally, I’ve grown to truly love tasting new bourbons and hearing the story behind them. This may sound overly introspective, but the families that produce bourbon spend their entire lives perfecting their bourbons and I can appreciate the work that goes into it.
A few weeks back a friend handed me this. Pappyland, a story of family, fine bourbon, and the things that last, by Wright Thompson. It’s masterfully written and incredible storytelling as the author walks through his own family’s history and weaves it in with the story of the most famous and hard to come by Bourbong in the world, Van Winkle Family Reserve, or Pappy.
It didn’t take long for me to start taking notes as the story truly affected me. In 1972, the bourbon business was in a nosedive. Profits were meager and the distillery that the Great Pappy Van Winkle built was sold by his son and cheap imitations were made under the same label. They began to use a new yeast to produce the bourbon and, while it technically worked, it lost some of its uniqueness and intricacies that made it truly the best.
The author said something that I initially passed by and then came back for a second read. He said, “More and more today, we don’t want to do the work or take the chances required for greatness, and we try to fix all those shortcuts on the back end with marketing and branding- modern, fancy words that mean lie.”
Whoa! Let’s unpack that a bit. What’s he really saying?
He’s saying that too often we won’t do the work it takes to truly be great, to truly solve the problems our world needs, or we settle for something that’s good enough.
But greatness requires something else entirely. Greatness requires hard work and taking chances. Now, most people equate taking chances to foolishness. But I don’t think the two go hand in hand.
It’s not foolishness to innovate and try new things. It’s not foolishness to invest time into training our teams or making sure our client experience is the best it possibly can be. But, so often we stop short of that. We settle because IT’S. HARD. WORK!
That’s something we tell each client we work with. There’s no magic wand to wave that can magically fix your business. And if there was, we would probably charge a lot more for it!
It takes hard work. Day after day, week after week, month after month to build a great business. But here’s the amazing thing... what’s leftover after the hard work is the thing that lasts. Think about it with home building. When we use quality supplies and a creative approach, we build a house that lasts, not one that falls apart within 15-20 years.
So, the question stands. Where are you taking shortcuts? Where are you using marketing and branding to try to maybe in a roundabout way, lie to the customer? It’s one of the things I love talking through with business owners when we write out their unique core values. When they say things like excellence or extra-mile customer service or we want to be the best... I make sure it’s not just lip service.
Because you can’t take a shortcut and accomplish things like that. There is no shortcut to get there!
Have you ever put out an ad and thought, “I don’t even believe that about our company, but maybe it will drive sales?” We can do better than that.
I’ll finish with this... during my quarantine, I’ll admit that I got sucked down some rabbit holes on YouTube. I found myself watching an interview with Jeff Bezos the CEO of Amazon (and I know he stirs up mixed emotions, but hang with me here), but it was an interview with Jeff Bezos from 1999. The interviewer was asking him about the viability of a company based solely on the internet. Which sounds crazy to me 22 years later, that this was even a question!
But Bezos had some incredible answers. The one thing that struck me, was in 1999, in the midst of something that was a risk, something that had never been done before, Bezos said this about his company. “That’s what we’re about, if there’s one thing Amazon.com is about, it’s obsessive attention to the customer experience end to end.”
That’s not taking a shortcut. That’s innovation... obsessive attention to his work in a direction that invokes change.
So I’ll send you off with a question today. Where are you tempted to take a shortcut or where are you tempted to not put in the work in your business, that’s robbing you of being able to be authentic with who you are to your customers.
Let me say that again...Where are you tempted to take a shortcut or not put in the work in your business, that’s robbing you of being able to be authentic with who you are to your customers.
That’s a heavy question, I know, but doing the hard work will be what separates you over the long haul and builds lasting relationships with all who do business with you.
Thanks so much for listening, take a few minutes while you’re here to follow us on YouTube and subscribe to our podcast. I promise it’s worth your time.
Have a great week!
What do 18 mo old swimming lessons have to do with your business?
It’s almost spring and all of our friends are having their kids get refresher swim lessons... so what does that have to do with you and your business... well let’s jump on in. Good afternoon friends, Thomas Joyner here with Business on Purpose.
I was on the phone the other day with a good friend and client, Stephen Page with Guild Mortgage here in Bluffton and we were just catching up on life. We went through the normal routine of wives, work, and kids and he started telling me about his 18 mo old daughter taking swim lessons.
He was obviously a proud dad as he said he sat there and watched his daughter, who started walking a few months ago and who was now jumping into the pool, spinning around and getting back to the side.
At 18 months old!
And he said something that struck me... He said, “It’s amazing all the things she’s capable of at such a young age. I guess she just needed the opportunity to do it!”
We hung up, but that thought went round and round in my head. “I guess she just needed the opportunity to do it.”
How often can that be said in our own businesses? How often are we holding back the people we’re responsible for from growth, from succeeding, or from accomplishing new things?
One of the questions Scott has started asking me in our weekly onboarding time is this. “What do I need to let go of so you can continue to grow in your role?”
He seriously asks me that every week. What does he need to let go of, what is he holding onto too tightly, that is keeping me from growing in my role. Because his desire is to have team members that are owning their roles, growing daily and weekly, and never staying stagnant.
You see he realizes an important thing when it comes to managing us... our team can only ever maximize its potential if he’s willing to let go of things and allow me to fail, then learn, then grow, then accomplish. And maybe along the way we realize that I and the rest of our team are way more capable than we ever realized!
The second thing I wanted to point out is how this mindset of limiting our capabilities is actually crippling our businesses performance as a whole.
Think about this... how often do we dream about what might be in our business? How often do we say, “I wonder if we could grow to that?” Or, “What if we could do this in addition to what we’re already doing?”
So often, our lack of dreaming and courage is the only thing holding us back from growth! That’s why in our 12 week planning, we always have a future section. We want to keep track of ideas that will challenge us and not limit our possibilities. We want to push ourselves to a place of knowing our limits. Maybe it doesn’t work out, but at least it won’t be for lack of vision.
It’s what is so powerful about the 12 week plan. Let’s figure out 3 important things that need to be done, or 3 areas of growth over the next 12 weeks, and then put action steps, a real plan in place, in order to accomplish it.
That’s what being a business owner is all about. Empowering your employees, pushing them to grow and realize their potential...and then putting a plan in place for your business to continue growing for years to come.
Don’t wait on this! You can accomplish so much more than you realize you’re capable of. If we can help you put a plan in place or help you equip your employees, reach out to us. We’d love to run alongside you.
Make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel and our podcast for more amazing content we release every few days. Have a great weekend!
How Do You Build A System For Marketing, Not Just A Strategy?
So many folks we talk to want to talk about Marketing strategies, but not build a marketing system. So how do you do that? Well, let’s talk about it. Happy Monday friends, Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose.
I spent countless hours at Clemson University studying marketing. It was my major and something that actually made sense to me. Accounting, not for me, but Marketing... I loved it!
I had a professor that spent months every semester drilling into the 4 P’s of marketing. Product, Price, Placement, and Promotion. He drilled that marketing mix into our heads every minute we were listening to him... and it worked. For years!
However, I was shocked the other day, when a local business owner puts words to something that we have felt for a while.
“The 4 P’s are out... it’s the 4 E’s now!” he said. Now this man has started and built more businesses than I can shake a stick at, so when he speaks, I listen.
But everything he said, made sense as he put words to things we at BOP had been feeling for a while now.
In this new model of marketing, the consumer has grabbed hold of the power. They are more informed, less patient, and more demanding than ever. Gone are the days of being able to maintain your advantage over a competitor for months or years.
No, sometimes now your advantage can be only for a few minutes before someone knocks you off and offers a similar product at a similar price.
So, where does that leave us? Well, with the 4 E’s of marketing.
The first E goes from the product to the “Experience.”
The challenge becomes not just focusing on the product's deliverables, as your advantage may only last a short while, but focuses more on the customer experience and workflow you provide. How can you deliver the best product, WITH THE BEST EXPERIENCE, in a way that creates long term customers?
The second E goes from place, to “Everyplace.” Typical marketing was an on/off switch that interrupted people during their normal day. Think billboard advertising that grabbed a customer's attention away from their morning commute or a commercial in the middle of a football game that interrupts your experience.
When we shift the mindset to “Everyplace,” we’re trying to intercept the customer in a way that is convenient for them, and at the time they are most receptive to our marketing efforts. Think about apps that walk you through the sales the moment you step in a grocery store or an interactive video series that helps give you the pros and cons of a specific decision. We must begin to, as Brian Fetherstonaugh said, “Today we have to intersect consumers on their turf and on their terms. And that could be anyplace or every place.
The third E goes from Price to “Exchange.” Everything we do has a value attached to it and it’s not always monetarily. Think about Toms Shoes for example. They weren’t amazing shoes, but they were attached to a cause that made people want to jump in and engage. There was value passed along that wasn’t just about the money but was about the fulfillment to the customer.
So do you even know what is being exchanged to a customer when they buy your product? You must master explaining that in a meaningful way, especially in a climate where the price is no longer the only means of decision making.
Lastly, the final E goes from promotion to “Evangelism.” Marketers used to find one benefit add of their particular product and stick to that time and time again to sell. Today, that’s simply not enough.
Today, customers want to be tied into a mission and customer experience that makes them raving fans and more likely to rave about you to their peers. That’s the ideal sell, right? Create customers that sell for you. This may be a new term for many of you, but it’s creating a replicating marketing program that, like the energizer bunny, keeps going and going and going.
It’s social marketing because it appeals to all of our sense and need for belonging.
So take those 4 E’s. Don’t just think through a strategy, but build a system to engage all of them in the marketing of your business. When it comes to the experience, build out your ideal customer experience, write down the processes that need to happen and then build out holes in your workflow to accomplish it.
For everyplace, find creative ways to intersect your ideal customer and build repeatable actions that come alongside them. Don’t just waste money throwing it out the window, but build a marketing system you can track and analyze to make sure it’s worth it.
For exchange and Evangelism, build a powerful mission to go with your business that is the thread that ties it all together. Make sure your widget is not just a widget, but something that truly changes the client’s life for the better.
When you do all of these things, you bring marketing to a place that it will radically transform your business and the lives of those you sell to.
Thanks so much for listening, make sure you check us out on YouTube and subscribe to our podcast!
Have a great week!
How Do You Actually Get Things Done?
How do you filter through the noise, the constant barrage of images and content thrown at you on a daily basis? Well, let’s jump in and talk about it. Thomas Joyner here with Business on Purpose!
I read a statistic this week that blew my mind recently!
“On average, over 500 hours of content is added to YouTube... EVERY MINUTE!!!” That’s outrageous, over 500 hours of content is uploaded to YouTube every minute. That means you can never catch up.
Another statistic for you... Netflix currently has 200 shows and movies under production to be added to their streaming platform to be added during 2021. That means you could binge-watch a new series (not individual show) or movie every day for almost 7 mos and still not watch the same thing twice. That is mind-blowing!
In fact, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings recently was quoted as saying that their “biggest competitor moving forward will be an individuals sleep!”
Think about that for a second, your attention is being fought for day in and day out...every second of the day. But your attention is being attacked not just to keep you from sleep, but to keep you from working hard, spending time with your family, being productive, getting healthy, every aspect of your life is being fought for by outside influences.
So how do you fight back? How do you filter through all of the noise and begin to implement things in your business or organization that truly can change it!
Well, it starts with putting down the distractions for a bit and making time for what truly matters most.
I was sitting in a coaching call with several of our clients last week and several of them all sat there and said, Thomas, it’s so hard to just find time to get started! I have great intentions of doing the Roadmap, but I just get caught up and stuck and I look up and the day or week is gone!
So, we pointed them back to the Weekly Schedule. It’s why we implement this with every business owner we work with. Until you can dictate what your schedule is, you don’t stand a chance to move past the chaos. You have to set a time, EVERY WEEK, to work on your business. We call it dental chair time…
Think about the last time you were at the dentist with that hygienist all up in your mouth cleaning...you don’t ask them to stop so you can answer an email or take a call or put out a fire. NO! You’re in a dentist appointment. And here’s the funny thing, we believe that a dentist appt is a better excuse for being off the radar than taking time to work on and build our business.
It’s no different! Set time in your schedule every week to implement. Imagine the clarity you would have if you took 2 hours a week as time to get perspective on what is going on? Imagine how freeing if you just cut your phone off or put it on do not disturb and closed that email tab at the top of your browser to give yourself enough time to filter through some of the noise and make game-changing decisions about what you want to implement.
Chaos is fighting for your attention! There’s no doubt about it. The question is can you push the pause button on the distractions long enough to do something about that. To cut through all of the awesome content that’s being thrown at you, to process it, and figure out what you’re going to implement in your business.
As Scott loves to say and Joe Calloway made famous, “Vision, without implementation, is hallucination.”
Don’t fall into the trap of getting distracted, but build your week up the way you want it to look, and then DO NOT WAVER from it. Implement, implement, implement. It’s the only way to take your business where you want it to go.