The Focus 53 Podcast: Business Systems, People, Processes

My guest today is Cameron Herold, the mastermind behind the exponential growth of hundreds of companies. Cameron built a dynamic consultancy and his current clients include a Big Four wireless carrier and a monarchy. His clients say what they like the most about him is that he isn't a "theory" guy. And this is what I like the most about him as well. He speaks from experience. He's actually done the things he talks about doing.

He has a reputation for growing businesses and he's the guru behind them in doubling their profit and doubling their revenue in just three years or less.

Topics We Discuss: Major challenges of organizations: Vision & Alignment and Quality level of people Cameron's concept of the Vivid Vision: A 5-paged written document that describes your company in vivid detail three years from today The challenge to get A players and working hard at getting rid of the wrong people Is business difficult? Hiring for greatness: Finding people who have done it before + Reference checks The power of having a daily accountability partner Focusing on the critical few things versus the important many Hiring A players: Giving them a better place to work + Core values Stop making excuses, fix your excuses! Metrics for success: Net promoter score + SWOT Analysis Factors for profitability: Employees first, customers second How to grow your business from zero to 60: Customer satisfaction Balancing systems: Family first, personal stuff second, then work The importance of unplugging yourself from work Building fun activities and building your business around that

Books, People, & Resources: Double Double by Cameron Herold The Miracle Morning for Entrepreneurs by Cameron Herold Good to Great by Jim Collins The One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard Endurance by Alfred Lansing Toronto Sport and Social Club

Today's show is a bit of a rift but this seems appropriate to dive into. The topic is called Unconscious Bias.

Here are a couple of definitions to set the stage as well as some of the narrative around it before I dive into what my beef is with it.

Bias versus Intuition

Bias is defined as an inclination of temperament or outlook, especially a person, and sometimes unreasoned judgment.

The flip side of it is something I consider one of the most powerful things that business people or anyone for that matter have, which is their intuition. For me, I've found that when I do some of my worst work is when I don't follow my intuition.

Intuition is defined as the ability to understand something immediately without the need for conscious reason. So it sounds an awful lot like a bias.

However, a bias is obviously with negative connotation. You look down on something or somebody or have some type of prejudice.

Unconscious Bias

You may have heard of this term and there is a massive narrative going on with this. I see it extensively in large organizations and on media outlets, especially the Fortune 500 companies I'm in or around.

With training, communications, meetings, forced training, forced action, and questioning - basically everything you do is some form of unconscious bias.

It's a question of the people you work with, with their race, gender, sex, nationality, etc., the people you hire and fire - it's all being shaped or molded by this concept of unconscious bias.

A Mask on Discrimination, Stripping Away Intuition

To me, this is a new mask put on the word, discrimination. (This might make your feathers ruffle a bit) Instead of focusing on the people or the circumstances that are discriminatory, the narrative is that you have to question every decision you make about any person, any situation, any organization and vetted against some sort of bias. Therein lies the problem.

I believe this strips us away of some of our natural intuition and the biases we have in our life are the things that have built our intuition. Especially for those people that are intuitive (which I consider myself), it strips away your power.

For example, if you have walked by a house that has type of dog that's ferocious and vicious (pitbull for instance) and it bites you, maybe you'll be scared of dogs. However, if you walk by five houses and this dog is ferocious and vicious and it bites you, you're going to establish an intuition about that type of dog. So when you run across that dog in the future, you will now have this natural thought process about that type of dog. That's normal and natural. That's what you call a defense mechanism. That's what you call experience.

People that are experienced in the field see things, feel things, hear things, and sense things. That's what makes them awesome at their job. This unconscious bias strips that away. So when you run across another pitbull and you automatically associate it as dangerous, you could be wrong but you could also be right. And you could be right far more times than you are wrong for that one bias that you have.

This is the challenge in the business world, in corporate America, or in your small business. What does that unconscious bias look like?

It's About Being Smart

There is a fine line between a bias that's on the negative side and intuition. Let's face it, this is where people may not agree with but your intuition is not only for good things but also for the bad things. If it's going to be labeled as a bias that your intuition tells you to stay away from a certain person or business profile that's treated you wrong, if those are the things you stay away from because you've learned from them in the past, then I don't consider you a racist or that you're discriminatory. Instead, I consider you smart that you're taking action.

Labeling Based on Perceived Unconscious Bias

I am not naive, in the slightest, to believe that there is no discrimination out there. My wife's family is from Mexico and my kids are half-Mexican. I am a mentor of underprivileged youth so I am very aware of the discrimination for race, gender, sexuality, nationality, etc.

But the narrative of not putting people in a box and then later put them in a box because they're part of the box or that you hire or fire them because they're not in the box is the same thing with what they're trying to teach about not having unconscious bias.

When I was a kid, we had a mixture of nationalities - Hispanics, African-American, Asian kids. I really didn't know the difference between races or what that meant. In fact, one of my best friends at that time was Jewish. I had no idea he was different than anyone else because he really was not. They just had a different holiday celebration but that was it. They're the same people. Unfortunately, we've lost some of that. My intuition now is that we lose some of that by labeling and forcing actions based on this perceived unconscious bias.

I was talking with my business coach, Mark Silverman, and brought up this concept of unconscious bias to him and how it charred me a bit. He brought up a good point though that people do have unconscious bias. I get that.. I wouldn't even call it an unconscious bias. I think some people are just flat out discriminatory. I don't even consider it unconscious.

Intuition versus Reality

You have to have a level of awareness inside of you to acknowledge what your intuition tells you versus reality. People that are aware of that can handle it.

So if I see a pit bull and it comes up nice and wagging its tail and excited to see me, I should be aware enough to change my perception about that. And you can apply this methodology to whatever business scenario you want.

I'd Love to Know Your Opinion

Unconscious bias is a hot topic right now and I'd love to know your take on this. It's a massive hot topic in the Fortune 500 companies.

As a side note, anything that becomes a massive hot topic in the Fortune 500 space is because they're afraid of getting sued. They don't do anything without some type of consequence so they're doing risk mediation.

Like I said, I consider unconscious bias as just another painted picture for discrimination and the things that come with it. This is a disturbing topic for me because it strips away intuition and again, for me, intuition is built through experiences and experiences create really good professionals and really good business people. Stripping that away and throwing a wet rag over that does the business person and the employee a bit of a disservice.

Some hard core examples from a business standpoint:

Facial or neck tattoos

When somebody comes in and I'm interviewing them and they have facial or neck tattoos or piercings, you can bet that I have some intuition about whether this person is a good fit for my company. And I may be wrong and they may be the best person in town. But they don't fit what I'm looking for and I know that. They will have impact on my customer base if they're doing physical interactions with them that I don't want. Call that bias. Call that intuition. Call that experience. But if you've got a neck tattoo, you can't be helping me sell or deliver high quality services and it's just how it is.

Communication

I think that scenario happens all the time. And sometimes it is wrong. You hear it all the time in the development or programming space. Like you don't want an Indian person answering the phone because you can't understand them. And I find that to be crap. That said, if their communication is not good, regardless if they're Indian, Chinese, Mexican, American, etc, if they can't communicate well then that's the problem. It has nothing to do with them being Indian.

What are you trying to accomplish and what are you trying to solve? How does your intuition work? Mine doesn't work in "Wow! They're Indians so they automatically don't speak good English." But, "I wonder how well they communicate." I'm obviously going to wonder if they have a thick Indian accent that would be hard for people to understand. Of course, that has to go through your thought process and has nothing to do with being racist or bias because they're Indians but it has to do with whether they're communicating well. And you need to vet that out.

Books, People, & Resources:

I'm researching former professional athletes and how they transition from being an athlete or a new lead athlete into the "real world." I'm interested in hearing about their struggles, their challenges, roadblocks, successes, and everything in between. Sports has always been a big part of my life. I love them. I have a special interest in athletes and specifically the ones that have competed at the highest levels. Do you know anyone like that? If so, I'd love to hear from them or maybe it's even you. Shoot me an email at [email protected].

Guest Name: Coach Dayne

Guest Intro: Today's guest is the distinguished and honorable Coach Dayne. He's a former professional athlete turned mental performance coach. He's focused on elevating our belief, what we're capable of, and achieving and aligning our mindset with those new expectations.

I've been following Dayne for some time and I love his style. I love his message. He's an athlete and I'm a big fan of athletes being a former athlete myself. I love his "no excuse, no BS" kind of way.

Topics We Discuss: Coach Dayne's background growing up in a family of athletes A missing piece in what people or trainers are teaching: Mental performance His struggles and how he got into mental performance coaching The other side of struggle: Greatness Aligning your mentality as an athlete with your business or career How to harness your greatness when you keep on making excuses: Going from macro to micro The power of visualization: Having a mental picture of what you're working toward Goal versus vision: How do you differentiate them? The secret sauce: Get committed to your belief! Hiring for greatness: Identifying the barriers that are holding you back Redefining failure as a success: Failure is your trampoline where you will be launched to new levels. Failure isn't just inevitable, it's mandatory. Putting yourself in situations where you can fail to train you for greatness How do you know you're on the path: An inextinguishable passion Coach Dayne's vision of making an impact and how he defines it Reshaping your expectations and raising them to insanity Monitoring progress: Journal entries and progress report on video The power of taking risks: Stop playing it safe!

Books, People, & Resources: Learn more about Coach Dayne on www.coachdayne.com and connect with him. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill The Book of Joy by Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu

Do you have any certificates? OR What awards do you have? OR What certifications do you have in your arsenal of skills?

Let's break down what this actually means.

An External Validation It's really a validation. They're asking for external validation, which is some form of insurance of who you are or what you are. This is an indication that you haven't served them.

Over the last 25 years, I've worked for companies like Microsoft, Ford, Dell, Sports Illustrated, and with small businesses (hundreds of them at this point in time). And when someone that you've already worked with ask you for these types of things, you haven't served them initially right out of gate. Or they're looking for some form of "insurance" about who they're talking to. They also use that as a quick way to discard organizations or people they're working with. And they make decisions based on other people's perceptions. So it's an external validation.

Are you certified? Do you go for awards? I'm a lifelong IT person and I've been in all sorts of positions from the very bottom to the very top in an IT organization. Along the way, I've held all sorts of certifications which have got me jobs and have got me in the door. I've learned a lot of "booksmarts" trying to obtain these certifications. Some employers or people really value them. They will love them. And they do sound good.

I was one of the very first people to get my Microsoft certification back in 1999 and back then, I was a big deal. Nowadays? Who gives a squat? It doesn't really matter in that realm.

But back then, it was a big deal and I used it to my advantage. I actually had my company pay for me to go to a bootcamp where I spent 13 days just hammering, learning, and taking test to get the certification. And the company tried to pin me into their organization because they paid for this $5,000 bootcamp where I went and got certified. They wanted to make me a prisoner of their organization because they paid for it. I had other job offers because I now had the certification which really meant a lot back then and they were going to pay me a lot more.

So I basically paid my company their money and for the certifications, I paid for myself and went on. That was a great decision for me. But it's a good example of how the certificate benefited me. It made a lot of sense since I also learned a lot. Plus, I met someone who later turned into my future boss twice that brought me into great organizations.

Do I still pursue certifications and/or awards?

No.

As a business owner and an employer, I would actually even put college degrees in this bucket now as well. I really don't care that someone has a certificate in web design to work in my company or care for business coaches that only have to have a business certification from some place. I've worked with some that have certifications who are fantastic but I've also worked with many that don't have certifications and they're just as fantastic. So for me, this is something I don't make decisions on.

I believe the best employees, producers, companies are the people that are just actually doing great stuff. I want to see real results. I don't care about scholastic achievements or awards. It's not always the best who wins the award. So you have to look no further than our pool of presidential candidates. That doesn't mean they're the best in the country or at anything to run it.

If you work your butt off, produce great results, and get an award, that's awesome! You should be proud that you did something so powerful that other people noticed. Your goal should always be to win, to be productive, and to serve your customer.

Getting a certificate or a certification This may ruffle a few feathers but this reminds me of the movie, Tommy Boy, about guarantees. I'm not certified in a lot of the things I do but I don't care. I'm not guaranteeing something that I have. I would throw caution at the wind that there are a lot of people that use a certification as their business model. So instead of building a business, they go and get a certification and use that as a way to attract business even when they're not really qualified to deliver their product/service. And that's scary!

Getting a certification is not like walking in and spending two weeks at a bootcamp You have to be up for it. Tradesmen and apprentices don't just follow a plumber around for two weeks and become a full-blown licensed, professional plumber and expected to do good work. Especially with doctors and lawyers, it takes time to gain that skill in your craft.

Winning an award If your goal is to win an award just so that you can attract prospects, it may work. But it's going to catch up with you sooner or later. Your business model isn't going to work.

The Products of Running a Great Business Wrapping up, there's nothing wrong with awards, certifications, and certificates. Many are well-received and very valuable, and most of them are great learning experiences. But as a consumer, I'm always aware that these certificates or awards just don't mean much to me.

As a business owner, certifications and awards are benefits of running a great business. If you win an award because you're recognized in your industry or community, that's awesome. But that's a product of you doing a great job.

If your people who work for you want to get certified because they want to pursue it to deepen their knowledge and you're able to provide that for them so they can get certified, then that's awesome. But those are products of running a great business. They are not business plans to get certified and get a job or business after that. So you don't want to be the guy or gal who sold a guaranteed piece of crap just because you have a fancy certificate or won an award. It won't work.

Books, People, & Resources: I'm researching former professional athletes and how they transition from being an athlete or a new lead athlete into the "real world." I'm interested in hearing about their struggles, their challenges, roadblocks, successes, and everything in between. Sports has always been a big part of my life. I love them. I have a special interest in athletes and specifically the ones that have competed at the highest levels. Do you know anyone like that? If so, I'd love to hear from them or maybe it's even you. Shoot me an email at [email protected].

Guest Name: Philip Cooke - Radically Simple Consulting

Guest Intro: My guest today is Philip Cooke whose lifelong passions are process improvement and helping people achieve their deepest passions in life. His engineering firm helps businesses who can't keep up with their demand for their product or service. They streamline their workflow to get more done with what they have.

Topics We Discuss: The challenges and successes Philip commonly sees in organizations The impact Philip provides to their clients: Finding the bottleneck is key How to tap into people who need help but don't understand the value The importance of knowing your pain points When to know your operation is growing in an unsustainable way Balancing between improving operations and new projects: Getting things ironed out before adding people The difference between automation and building a process: Make sure you're NOT automating a broken process! Attributes of great leaders: Daily plan + Execution Dealing with decisions and tasks performed at a wrong level What makes a bottleneck? Find the bottleneck and start finding ways to shift around Freeing your mind to take things off the plate Metrics and monitoring the health of an organization: Scoreboards with 2-3 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) Cycle Time First Time Right Making sure there's a good market for what you do The way to build relationships: Providing VALUE The importance of simplifying your operations: Whiteboards + simple systems

Books, People, & Resources: Radically Simple Consulting The Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt The ONE Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan

Show Summary: Today's show is about making the big leap. This is for all of you that has a side hustle, a day job, and would want to make a big leap.

Just like every show, this is strictly my opinion but there's a big narrative out there of "going all in" and "burning the bridges." This is dangerous for older people or those with responsibilities. And it gets glazed over too much. I think that's dangerous.

I'm not suggesting it shouldn't be done because I'm a big fan of going all in. And I'm a big fan of going all in when it's calculated and not just because you're sick of your job or you think you have the next best thing.

I'm going to talk about what my mental process is or would be if I were to make a big leap.

How much money do you make?

How much money are you making right now? How much money are you making in your side hustle? You have to be really diligent about this. You've got to add in back in things like your healthcare, cellphone, retirement, stock options, home, mileage, or any other perks that your company pays for. You've got to account for all that stuff because it does add up.

Healthcare is a huge one. If you have healthcare and you're on your own, maybe you can swing it but if you have a husband/wife or kids, you can't play with that. You've got to have that all mapped out. At least be aware of it. You don't have to do anything but if you're already living okay and you have a side hustle and you've been making money, and you're probably doing financially okay, then you need to figure out what that level is for you.

How much money do you really need to make to live and survive? Then add 20% because things could go wrong and there are always problems. Kids will always get sick. Things in your house are going to break. Your cars are going to need repairs. So make sure you know how much money you have to make and don't undercut that number.

How much money do you save?

How much money have you saved? If you've had a full time job and you've had a side-hustle and you don't have any money stashed away, here are three possible reasons:

Not as good side hustle as you thought You have a spending problem. You have a cash flow problem. Any of these will turn into big problems once you start running your business on your own. Cash flow is a really important thing to have. You have to have cash to run a business. You have to have cash to pay your bills. Managing your cash is critical.

The Profit First Model

This means that if your side hustle is making money, that money goes into profit before you do anything with it. Put it in a separate account that you can set aside. How much money do you have stocked up? This is both personal cash and business cash.

If you're going to make a leap, sales are not always going to happen or things are not going to go the way they normally do so you have to have a number of months of cash set aside so you're safe and not in panic mode right out of the gate.

How would you handle slow months?

Of course, it goes back to much money you have saved up but more importantly, could you survive? Could you pay your bills? Could you find auxiliary work? Do you have ways that you could work harder to make more money? How are you going to account for slow months? Because, guaranteed, it will happen (lost deals, economic downturn, holidays, high interest rates, snowstorms, etc.) You have to be prepared for it by having a plan in place.

Have you talked with your significant other?

Talk about your husband/wife/partner what's going to happen when there's a slow month, what you need to do, and what you need them to be aware of. More importantly, ask for their understanding and support. This is very important. It's your responsibility to have this conversation with them. Get them fully on board with what you're doing. It's not going to make the situation any easier but your significant other has to be on board with you.

What sacrifices are you willing to make?

How long are you willing to stick it out for? Are you willing to live off of credit cards? Are you willing to cut your cable bill or sell your car to have cash? Are you willing work weekends or when your kids are playing sports or on holidays? What sacrifices are you going to make?

You have to define this and hopefully, you won't have to compromise on them. You need to account for these but at the same time, you need to be very self-aware and really understand the sacrifices you're willing to make. For example, you can't trade three months into working 7-12 hour days and seeing your family less because you're in the basement or office. It doesn't make sense.

Are you ready to make that big leap?

If you're really going to do this, please talk to your significant other. Please understand what you're getting yourself into. And please seek advice from others that have done it.

With all this being said, I love people who burn the ships and people that go all in. Personally, I am far more motivated, efficient, and determined when my back is in the corner but it's hard to do that when you're in the comfort zone. So I think you're crazy if you have other responsibilities and you've risked it to the extreme if you have not answered these questions because you're jeopardizing your family's well-being.

Maybe you don't need all the things that you have to live now but you certainly don't need to eat ramen noodles with your family or not have healthcare for a couple of months because you're wanted to go chase your dream. Maybe that's what would come out of it, but it's different than not planning for it and not being aware of it ahead of time.

Make an educated decision.

Again, the narrative of going all in and burning the bridges is dangerous, crazy, and exciting for some people. But you need to take a step back. Take a deep breath. Consult with some people. Map it out. Answer the questions mentioned above. And make an educated decision. The decision may be bad down the road. But at least it wasn't blind on going all in. You don't see professional poker players, going all in with their chips, blind. You have to have data and information and be educated. And this is no different.

Books, People, & Resources:

I'm researching former professional athletes and how they transition from being an athlete or a new lead athlete into the "real world." I'm interested in hearing about their struggles, their challenges, roadblocks, successes, and everything in between. Sports has always been a big part of my life. I love them. I have a special interest in athletes and specifically the ones that have competed at the highest levels. Do you know anyone like that? If so, I'd love to hear from them or maybe it's even you. Shoot me an email at [email protected].

Show Summary: Today's show is about if you'll need to rent your pallbearers and the core of that question is pretty obvious. When you die, are you going to have relationships? Do you have friends and people that care about you so much so that they'll be at your funeral and carry you down in the casket? The root of this is...

How are you making your money as a business owner?

Are you in alignment with your integrity?

Will you do anything for a buck?

Or are you spending quality time with the ones you love?

Are you working to do things that allow you to spend time with the ones you love?

This all comes down to your mission.

What is your mission in life?

What are you trying to accomplish? If you're making a crap ton of money, you've got no friends, and you're doing anything to make a buck and taking advantage of people (or whatever that looks like), if that's your mission then live it. That's up to you. That's between you and your maker and how you sleep at night. Just remember to save some of that money to rent your pallbearers.

However, it will work out better when you align your mission with something more powerful and bigger than just how much money you're making. The irony here is that when you align your mission or what you do with something that's not related to money and materialistic things, oftentimes you end up doing better anyway.

I suspect there are a few people out there that are money-hungry but those ones fizzle out quickly. If you burn enough people, you'll get called out and eventually, it's not going to work anymore or you could end up in jail.

To wrap up the show today, I've got two questions for you:

What are you doing to make sure that the people you have in your life will be your pallbearers? Are you spending your time on the right things?

I'm actually wearing a silicone bracelet to remind me of what's important in life. I get wrapped up in success, business, Focus53, doing a good job, and working hard enough but it all boils down to these three things, which I call my 3F's:

Faith Family Fitness I know that if I'm taking care of these three things, all of the other things will take care of themselves specifically for me.

Books, People, & Resources:

I'm researching former professional athletes and how they transition from being an athlete or a new lead athlete into the "real world." I'm interested in hearing about their struggles, their challenges, roadblocks, successes, and everything in between. Sports has always been a big part of my life. I love them. I have a special interest in athletes and specifically the ones that have competed at the highest levels. Do you know anyone like that? If so, I'd love to hear from them or maybe it's even you. Shoot me an email at [email protected].

Guest Name: Joe Shafer - Joe Shafer - Joe Shafer Fly Fishing

Guest Intro: Today, my guest is Joe Shafer. We've been friends for 25 years and he's actually my oldest friend that I've interviewed for this show. He is someone I respect a lot. Joe is in the law enforcement but that's not why he is on the show but because he owns a company called Joe Shafer Fly Fishing. He's my client and partner and we've worked together on his website and his strategy.

I'm excited to have him on because he's going to bring a different element to the show. The fly fishing business is really cool and very detailed where you have to know your stuff, and it's a service-based business to the core. The better service you provide, the more clients like you, the better tips they lay down, the more they come back and see you.

Topics We Discuss: How Joe got into the fly fishing business The benefits of fly fishing Building the brand: Promoting his fly fishing guide Using the website as a teaching tool for people The importance of translating your knowledge into something people can use and digest Processes/systems he used: Developing a good game plan The power of feedback Joe's biggest struggle of breaking down website content that is easily digestible Learning new processes regularly to make him better and to put out the best product possible Having the right mindset, overcoming fears, and building confidence Monitoring success for business: Utilizing social media as a tracking mechanism and looking for growth areas Knowing you're competent but you're scared: What do you do?

Books, People, & Resources: Find out more about Joe Shafer on www.joeshaferflyfishing.com Connect with Joe on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Colorado Guide Flies by Pat Dorsey

Today's show is about something I work on with my clients all the time and something I'm always working on. And you can substitute "working on" for "struggling" sometimes and sometimes it's something I'm really good at. It's a form of personal balance - how to know how much time to spend on your craft, product, or service versus the other "stuff" you do in your business, which can be accounting, admin work, marketing, sales, hiring/firing, business development, reporting, etc.

How much of your time are you doing that versus the actual product creation or product development (if you're a "products" person) or services and services delivery (if you're in service business)?

You'd like to think this was an easy answer but we all know we have a limited amount of time to deal with during the day. But I've found it personally as well as with the people I'm working with that being able to put a container around this helps keep you from working 16-hour days and looking back not knowing what the heck have you got done in the day.

Here are some principles I've used to govern how to know what to spend time on.

Bootstrapping If you don't have money and you're bootstrapping it, suck it up. The exercise here is to only do the important things. Do you really need to work on a social media campaign if that's a stretch for you and that's not important to your business right now? Is that the best use of your time? If you're bootstrapping and can't hire people to do it then you're going to have to do these things.

Setting priorities Have a great priority identified and set up that you can go through and review to make sure that if you're doing all these things, at least you're doing them in order of priority. Sales and business development should always be at the top of this list. Sales will make up for a lot of wrongs in your other business certainly in the short term so cash flow can account for some of these stuff. Business development is something you can do yourself especially when your business is small.

Hiring Let's say you do have some money but you still find yourself stuck in the minutia of your business. You should hire out to very specific tactical functions inside of your organization like:

Accounting There is no reason you should be doing this. Go hire someone. Pay a couple hundred bucks a month. Ask your friends or other people in business who they use and get a referral to get this off your plate.

First of all, your books need to be clean. Your accounting needs to be done well. That has all sorts of downstream ramifications from both being able to sell your company and identifying issues in your business. Get it done right by having an expert do it. It's an easy thing to segregate from your business and have someone else do it.

Hiring/Firing If you don't have an HR person inside the organization, this is something you need to do. If you have someone in your organization that you think needs to be let go of, let go of them TODAY. I say this pretty sternly because everyone knows there are people inside of the organization that you need to let go but they just drag on.

I saw an interesting stat at this one conference I was at that really resonated with me, which is that:

"A bad employee costs 15x more than their salary."

This seems like a bit of an exaggeration but you can very easily see how it does between bad potential customer service and the loss of additional customers or bad morale or environment for your other employees. And it sets the bar.

Stop making excuses!

When you're running a larger company and have a bit of money but you still find yourself stuck in the minutia and there's not enough time to hand off things or you don't know what to hand off and how to get it to someone else or that you don't want to hire someone. These are just excuses and in fact, this is the biggest pull of people I work with and the environment I'm in.

The reality is, you're lying to yourself. You know exactly what to do. You know exactly how to do it. You just need to do it. And by "do it," I mean getting it off your plate. Either find someone else to do it or delegate it to someone who's already in your organization, hire somebody, or don't do it at all.

This is the giant paradox and what I want to tie this back to is that I work with a ton of people that are working so hard and in the grind and they're complaining about their job and what they're doing. They're working 16 hours a day and doing part of the assembly of their product because they don't have the stones to hire someone for $8 an hour to do the manual labor for them so they can be off doing their own business.

Your Call-to-Action:

If you're really unsure how much time to spend on your craft, product, and service versus other stuff in your business, I encourage you to sit back and reflect on these questions:

Am I happy with everything I'm doing to my business right now? Am I providing service to my business the best that I can be? Are you happy? Or are you just working your ass off to get by and that's just all you've done? Sit back. Take a deep breath. Think about all the things you're doing. And think about whether these really fit into the things you're really good at that you should be doing for your organization.

For solopreneurs out there and you work by yourself and you augment everything with contractors, same thing. If you're the one doing all your Facebook posts and if you have the opportunity to outsource it for $100 a month, think about it.

Books, People, & Resources:

I'm researching former professional athletes and how they transition from being an athlete or a new lead athlete into the "real world." I'm interested in hearing about their struggles, their challenges, roadblocks, successes, and everything in between. Sports has always been a big part of my life. I love them. I have a special interest in athletes and specifically the ones that have competed at the highest levels. Do you know anyone like that? If so, I'd love to hear from them or maybe it's even you. Shoot me an email at [email protected].

Show Summary:

Today's show is about a question I received from my business coach. Mark Silverman. He's a great guy and I love him to death. He really knows his stuff so please go check him out. And the question is...

What area/areas do you feel you haven't been doing your best?

This is a pretty deep one. It makes you reflect on yourself and what you are doing versus your expectations. And if you're okay with it, sitting with it for a minute, and really processing it - the goal here is to be brutally honest with yourself.

I'm going to give you what mine were and I hope this resonates with you and will get you to sit down and think where haven't you been your best. Everyone knows, giving your best is important but only giving your best for the right things are important. So this implies which areas should you be giving your best that maybe you are not.

Making good food choices and working out

This is a big one for me and it always is and always has been a struggle in my life. Eating like crap translates into feeling not as good and then this spirals down. So the two big dominoes for me are making good food choices and getting a workout in every single day.

I brought this up on the show a number of times now but the year I trained for Ironman (which was just over a year ago) that I competed in was my best business and financial year (so far) of my life.

A coincidence?

I don't think so. Because it becomes part of your life. You become laser-focused on the time that you're not working out because you're working out so much and you're working out only on the things that are important to you.

The Domino Effect

So this is a massive domino for me and I believe it is a massive domino for everyone. If I am working out, if I am competing for something, it makes me feel better and it brings up the energy, and then I also make good food choices because I don't want to be running with what it feels like a bag of concrete in my gut. I don't want to be swimming with that and I don't want to feel crappy. So these are the two things that I haven't been doing my best at and I know that.

Asking

I am very much a Type A person and I have this weird and crappy belief that I'm working on that I don't ask for help. It's a very prideful thing. I don't ask my best friends for help. I don't ask my family for help. I don't ask much of anyone for anything really. And while that may seem like a good and a prideful thing, the people that love me the most, that can help me out the most, that would love to help me out the most, I don't ask them for anything. So I'm working on this

It's not asking in a way that I'm asking for money, but things like, asking for introductions or if they know anyone that would be a good fit for my business. I've been telling myself this lie to my closest friends and to myself for the better part of 15 years that they can't help me in my professional life.

The reality is they know people that need the services I do and I just haven't asked. And this is just a big, big, black spot that I need to address, which is an area I haven't been doing my best in.

Being bold

This is an interesting one because if you ask my friends, who are stable and conservative and have day in and day out jobs, they think that I'm the boldest guy they know. I have multiple businesses. I travel. I am not afraid to go to conferences or talk to people. And they consider that being bold.

The truth is...

I don't feel like I'm being bold. I feel like I'm playing half-ass a lot of times. Being bold is relative to the person but for me, I haven't been playing my best. I have not been bold. I have been conservative and laid back and that's a focus area for me.

Playing safe

Every week, it changes potentially but these are constant themes I see as I go through. I use the 100 Day Journal as something that my business coach, Mark, gave me for some of my journaling goals and my business goals and this is a common theme I see.

This is a culmination of all of the above areas I've mentioned. Playing safe for me is really this mindset of putting limits on the things that I can do.

From Ironman to now...

I know that when I didn't play safe, I put a date on the calendar and signed up for Ironman when I hadn't trained and when I hadn't run more than 5 miles in my entire life. That's not playing safe. That's being bold. That's going after what I want and I did that! And it feels really good to do that. It feels like you get a new lease of life that you've proven to yourself that you can do something great.

And I haven't been doing that ever since the Ironman. I have been playing it safe on many levels - on a professional level and on a fitness level. This is something I need to work on and this is where I haven't been my best. And I'm looking to change that.

What about you? Where haven't you been you're best?

I encourage you to go deep with yourself and be honest with yourself. Really sit with yourself and stew on this because the places where we aren't being our best and the areas that we want to be our best are massive opportunities for growth and success. And this is very different than, "I'm not being my best at watching Game of Thrones." Being the best at that isn't going to move your life forward.

Where I am definitely doing my best at: Commitment to my family and my faith

What you don't see on this list which I'm very proud of are my family and my faith. I am committed to both of these and I am extremely committed to being there for my family, probably a little too much on the family side. Because if I have to travel for any reason, I get a little frustrated because I want to be with my family. It's probably healthy for me to be gone. But what you don't see on this list of where I haven't been giving my best is with my family. I feel like I'm doing a really good job at that and there's a lit of things that I do feel good at.

But for me to grow, I have to really focus on what I haven't been my best in and these are the things for me right now and I'm working every single day to change that whether behavior changes, daily practice changes, or habits. I'm a big habit guy. So if I change my habits, then I'll change these things natively. And the biggest domino of all of these is getting workout in so that's what I'm focusing on.

Books, People, & Resources:

I'm researching former professional athletes and how they transition from being an athlete or a new lead athlete into the "real world." I'm interested in hearing about their struggles, their challenges, roadblocks, successes, and everything in between. Sports has always been a big part of my life. I love them. I have a special interest in athletes and specifically the ones that have competed at the highest levels. Do you know anyone like that? If so, I'd love to hear from them or maybe it's even you. Shoot me an email at [email protected].

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