Episode 512: What - How - Who

Hey everyone. Well, on this podcast, I talk a ton around hard skills, tools, frameworks, concepts, things that we use as business owners to learn the business side of business. And if you're new to this podcast or to our YouTube channel, we help small business owners, often $300,000 to $3 million. We help them to design a blueprint for their business. The way we do that, 3 easy steps. Number 1, we help them get above the business, not just work on it or in it, but get above it. Number 2, we help you to start thinking like the architect of your business. And then step number 3, what do architects use? They use a blueprint. We think that you should also have a blueprint for your business. So we talked about hard skills often, how to use tools and frameworks, etc. I talk a lot about strategy. They talk about the importance of having a very crystal clear vision about where it is that you're trying to go. I believe all of that is true. However, I want to share something. I actually had a different episode I was going to drop this week, but the recent firing of Hugh Freeze, the interim coach DJ Durkin at Auburn had a press conference. It's about 20 minutes long or so, but I'm going to play about a 30-second clip from that press conference that I'm really excited to share with you, and we're going to have a discussion right after.

Yeah, it just, um, I think it's important, like, in football you realize this, that it's not, it's not always what you do, it's how you do it and who does it. And I think that's a major thing, like, like, like how you do things, how you do anything in life really matters. And you can see a difference in two people doing the same exact thing, but it's, it's, there's a difference in how they're doing it. And so that's our first focus. And it— with an edge and with relentless effort and a certain sense of physicality, it has to be done.

I completely agree with him. I see this so often that business owners have some of the right metrics in place. They have the same strategy, the same marketing and sales strategy, and one seems to be growing and doubling every 3 years. They're growing at a 26% year-over-year clip and throwing off 15% to 25% net profit. And yet the other business owner is stuck. And so he is so right. Oftentimes we like to look at the what, the strategy, the marketing, the dashboards, and all of that is absolutely important. But it is how you go about doing it, how your team goes about doing it, which is the third part, which is who is also doing it. The one thing that is obviously different is the leaders are different in businesses, but so are the teams. So are the teams. And so while this idea, one of the things I try to in this podcast always try to give you one or two things specifically to be able to take away, something that you can kind of reflect on in this. And look, you don't need me to share with you like, hey, you got to have a good team. I mean, that's like saying, you know, by the way, the key to good success is have systems and processes and have a good team. No crap. Obviously need to be able to do that. So What is one of the things that we can take away as small business owners from that episode with D.J. Durkin? I mean, basically what he's saying is, is, look, yes, sure, some of the scheme that Auburn was trying to run offensively as a football team, what they were trying to do is not necessarily bad, but it's the way how they were going about doing it. Now, in business, we don't necessarily have to talk about having a certain level of physicality as you do on, say, the offensive defensive line in the SEC. So what does that look like for us? I think for business owners, I think it looks like enthusiasm. And I had to kind of reflect myself this week. If have I led my own team from a place of enthusiasm the last few weeks, even the last couple months, not nearly at the level that I should. And that is on me. And that is one thing that I'm absolutely gonna have reflected on myself is to ensure that while in spite of some challenges, there's always challenges in business. It is so important that I make sure that I am doing the things to fill my own cup with, with hard stops in the morning, hard stops in the evening from a work perspective, doing things to make sure that I have the energy levels and that I have the feeling of momentum that is moving forward because the team is going to pick up on that. And so if you have had a tough year, a challenging year, there's a couple of clients that I work with have— they've been frustrated with where things are. They've had in a couple of cases nearly 10 people turnover in 2 different businesses. They've had turnover of 10 people. That is challenging. Yet one of the hardest things to do is to be able to lead with confidence and conviction that yes, we absolutely have had a tough time, but in the end, we will absolutely be able to prevail. The only way to do that is you have to do certain things yourself to make sure that you're filling your own cup because as a business owner, nobody is going to do it for us. So if nothing else, this is a reminder. For all of us that we have to do certain things to fill ourselves back up. If you have been kind of running on empty, if you've been running thin, what are the things specifically for you that give you energy? I'm talking about outside of work, working out, being cognizant of what you eat, being cognizant of sleep, being cognizant of water, all of these type of things is that a little bit over time they can begin to build. And for me, what often happens, you know, like the center console— I have a Toyota Tundra truck— and so in the center console, like, I, I tend to like things kind of organized and tidy, but that's one place that it can get kind of messy. And you ever notice that you'll go through maybe and spend 30 minutes kind of cleaning that out, reorganizing that area, or maybe a junk drawer in your office or at home And you go back through and you start to, you know, you start to put it together or clean it up. And then it's a few months later down the road, it's back being messy yet again. Oftentimes our enthusiasm can begin to wane just like that. And so we have to do kind of a Ctrl+Alt+Delete to reset things. And look, those are ideas— working out, water, nutrition, sleep. Those are the baselines. But also, what about— when's the last time you actually sat down and read? How long has it been since you actually got away from some devices and thought on paper, or think in ink, so to speak? These little small disciplines over time can help to give you some of the clarity. Maybe having— asking the people, your spouse, loved ones, kids, friends around you to have some more guardrails. Maybe it's just been a very difficult season personally. But I think in the end, it's not just always what we do, but it is how we go about doing it and who we do it with. But I specifically on this episode wanted to focus on his point about there can be two business owners and they're fundamentally, maybe they're the same size, $500,000, $1 million, $1.5 million in revenue. And they're, you know, from a strategic standpoint, the marketing sales, they're doing effectively the same thing. They're both investing 7% in marketing. They're getting leads from similar sources. They have the exact same team structure, maybe 3 sales and 2 service, something like that. And so they're fundamentally on the outside looking in, looks like they're doing all the same things. And one is taking off and not as strong. It's how they are going about doing it. And the one thing about how they're going about doing it is that the business owner oftentimes is clear. He or she is clear. They are not overworked. They're not working till 8 o'clock at night, talking about work all the time. They have boundaries around their time. They have gotten away from some of the devices. They are, uh, and they lead from a place of enthusiasm. And I wish I could remember the book that really talked to me a lot about enthusiasm. And I actually want to go back and pick up that book if I can recall what it was. But it was one of the things that As I was reading it early on, he talked about in that book the importance of just leading from a place of enthusiasm. Now, he was actually referring to it from a sales perspective, but I think the same thing is true for us as leaders. So this one I thought was relevant given what DJ said, so I decided to change and put this episode in front of some other ones. Hope this served you well. If I can be of any help to you, if you would like myself to help you to create a business blueprint. Go to blueprintos.com, blueprintos.com. You can book in a game plan call, find many of the different resources, reach out to myself or somebody on our team. We'd love to be able to connect with you and help you to have a blueprint to grow your business. All right everyone, till next time, lead well and go be great. Hey, if you like videos like this, click below. We'd love to have your support. Like and subscribe so we can begin to grow this channel. We have big plans going into 2026 to do more things specifically for our audience on YouTube. Would love if you would like and subscribe and maybe even share this with one other person.