Straight Talk with Alan Decker

Every business owner plays the waiting game without realizing it — tweaking the logo for the third time instead of making calls, reorganizing the CRM instead of following up. Alan Decker breaks down what waiting actually costs you and the one-line formula that fixes it: show up anyway.What's the hardest lesson your business ever taught you?

Johnny Enzo is a Corpus Christi realtor and the founder of the Bay Area Business Alliance. I asked him six questions — what he does, what pulled him into real estate, the part of the job buyers and sellers never see, the one thing every buyer should know, why he built a referral network instead of buying leads, and where to find him.Fair warning: we recorded this one over voice notes, not in a studio. The audio's a little rough — the conversation's worth it.If you're buying or selling in the Coastal Bend, Johnny's your guy. Know a local business owner I should spotlight next? Let me know.

I build businesses, and I connect the people who run them. Sounds simple. Took me years to understand it's two different jobs — and most people only develop one of them.

The builder makes things that work. Systems, companies, the actual machinery. The connector knows people, makes the introduction, puts the right two owners in the same room. The builder's trap? "If I just make it better, they'll come." They rebuild the product instead of building the relationships.

Which one are you neglecting — and what's it costing you?

Music: "Big Rock" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License.