Good vs Great Business Owners

What actually is the thing that moves the needle in the business? And can you direct resources, your time, your team's energy, effort, and stay focused on that relentlessly? Hey everyone, I got a question the other day. We had our Beat the Odds retreat at Lake Guntersville, and some people flew in. We were going to the golf course, and somebody asked me a question that That said, what do you think, over all of the years of working with small business owners, being a business owner yourself, what do you think the difference is between business owners that are good and business owners that are great? Now look, if you think about executives, maybe a Tim Cook, a Steve Jobs at Apple, if you think about you know, Warren Buffett, who is an incredible investor. If you think about Elon Musk, you think about Jeff Bezos, they're in another sphere, they're in another atmosphere in terms of, you know, kind of business expertise, learning. So you think about someone like a Keith Cunningham, you think about somebody like a Ryan Dyson, Daniel Priestley, etc., and a tremendous amount of respect for them. So I'm answering this from the perspective that I have had oftentimes kind of having a passenger seat to a lot of the small business owners that I've worked with alongside, worked with, helped them and their teams, or just kind of been able to be a fly on the wall over the last few years. And I took a few minutes because I really love the question. I think that's why there's power in questions. And I wanted to try to give an honest answer because I was kind of curious myself about what do I actually think is the difference between the good business owners and maybe even the ones that have struggled and the business owners that have been able to really grow their businesses and achieve the freedom and flexibility and financial success that many small business owners and entrepreneurs strive for, but yet seems so elusive at times. And so I really had heard and liked this idea from Alex Hormozi whenever he was writing some of his books, is that he would kind of have an idea around something and then he would kind of challenge his own beliefs around it. So I was doing that mental gymnastics, so to speak, thinking, well, I think the one— some of the best business owners are incredible marketers. Well, as I was going through that in my head, I started to kind of stress test my own ideas and I found flaws in that. I've been able to work with some really talented business owners that really did not fully understand marketing. They've hired some good people. They've had some agencies that they've worked with. But to say that they're a marketing expert, Would not be true. I certainly immediately then went to sales acumen. Well, that's been debunked. That, that certainly is not the case. And then I went to where they're just really able to find the best people, and I sat on that one for a long time, and I really thought that that was the answer. But then I got to thinking around kind of picking strategies and staying focused, and ultimately I landed on this, and this was what I shared with him. But admittedly, it has sat with me for several days. In fact, actually a couple weeks at this point. What do I actually believe is the difference between the business owners that seemingly have success, achieve the goals and the targets and the objectives that they have for their company, ultimately achieve what it is they want to achieve, and the ones that don't. And as of right now, in second quarter of 2026, I would love to share my answer, but I would love to hear what do you believe is the difference. The answer that I've settled on And obviously, hence why I'm sharing this podcast. We're actually going to drop a different episode, but I felt like that this was, uh, I felt like this was timely. We're kind of sitting between the marketing workshop, and which is in April, and the May leadership workshop. We're a few months into the year, so I felt like it made sense to drop this episode now. I think the difference is that the business owners that get it done, they have a ruthless ability to identify what matters. And part 2 of that is to remain focused on those things. Two parts, but I think it's ultimately around one thing. They are ruthless in their ability to stay focused on the things that matter, the growth levers, like the needle movers in the business. They have been able to identify that. And being able to work with some really successful business owners, I can tell you that the perception is that these businesses and business owners have it all together, that it is an unbelievable well-oiled machine. And in some aspects of the business it is, but in many cases it's— yeah, there's turnover within the business, there's cultural issues, there's, you know, people that are, you know, disagreeing in the business. There's, there's a little bit of, uh marketing imbalance. There's not complete dysfunction. I don't want to pretend it's that, but it's not maybe as well-oiled as what you may think it is. And the reason I say that is that that should give you some hope, but it also should mean if that's the case, if they have crap in their business too, Then what? How have they been able to still succeed? It's because the leader has identified what are the needle movers in the business, what are the things that matter, and stay focused on those. Sometimes what matters is their ability to identify, hire, and onboard and develop incredible people. And so it absolutely sometimes does come down to people, but sometimes what matters is also strategy. Sometimes what matters is simplifying the business. Sometimes what matters is putting more effort into marketing. Sometimes what matters is just developing the current team that you have. It's not about hiring. Sometimes what matters is getting rid of the team that you have so that you can get better people in the organization so you can grow. So hence, that's why I settled on— when I reflected back and I would think to myself, The business owners that I feel— and I would give names, but honestly, I feel like it's irrelevant to the point. The ones that I look back on and, you know, who have I worked with or been somewhat alongside, even some of my own mentors, what have I been able to see from them? My own coaching, my own coach, Mike, and how they are able to grow. What do I think that they do differently? What do I think? Do I think that they have a blueprint that they're growing with? Yes, I do. Absolutely. And you may think, given our whole podcast here is about helping business owners to get above the business, to think like an architect and design the blueprint. Yes, absolutely. I believe in that wholeheartedly. I believe it is so important that you get above the business, not just working on it or in it. I think you need to have time to work on it. I think you need to get above it at times too. I do think you need one— you want to start thinking differently. You may have thought before I shared, you may have thought I was going to say something around mindset. Well, there are times that that is the thing that matters, is your mindset is the thing that needs to change. And so the business owners that have had some of those things where they've kind of been stuck in their minds, they will ruthlessly focus on that. Until that is fixed, and then they will go and focus on the next thing. And this comes around with the idea of, you know, the book The Goal, where he talks about theory of constraints and bottlenecks. And the whole premise of that is to identify the bottlenecks and to remove them. But it changes. It changes, maybe not sometimes, not necessarily weekly, but it changes monthly or quarterly very often. Like, once you are able to achieve something else and you break through that, the business will continue, will grow, until then it hits another bottleneck. And your ability to then identify that bottleneck and put resources— your time, your energy, your team's capacity, money— behind fixing that bottleneck, that is what separates the good business owners from the great ones. They are able to correctly— more times than not, not that they don't bat 100%, but more times than not, they identify what matters and they stay focused on it until that is fixed. And then the business grows until it hits another bottleneck, and then they go and focus on that. All the while, behind them, there are some fires burning. There are things that are maybe a little chaotic at times. And that should give you encouragement, because if you think— if you're at half a million and you think getting to, you know, a million, or getting to, you know, tripling the business, getting to $1.5 million, is all about like removing all— there should be no problems in the business, okay? Should be no turnover, no issues, the team gets along perfectly, our marketing is humming, everything is great— that is absolutely not true. And that should give you some encouragement. So my question to you, if you think about it right now, what is the thing that actually really matters in your business? And once you are able to identify that, what are you going to do about it? I did a podcast on that from one of my mentors, Sean Blanc. But what actually is the thing that moves the needle in the business? And can you direct resources money, time, and your time, your team's energy, effort, and stay focused on that relentlessly, ruthlessly, staying focused on those things and not allowing yourself to get distracted. I've seen often business owners have miscalculated what actually matters and what to be able to focus on. For the most part, if they will take the time, they can develop that muscle The harder one, in my point, in my opinion, is not the identification of what matters. It's being able to remain focused on that for a sustained period of time. What are your thoughts? I'd love for you to let us know. By the way, we are now on social. If you want to follow us on Instagram, go to @above_the_business. At Above the Business. You can see some of our clips from this episode and many others. So go follow us on, on Instagram. We'd love for you to be able to come to our next workshop. Depending on when you are listening to this, go to workshop.blueprintos.com. At the time of this recording, we're just getting ready to finish up our April workshop, which was all about marketing. The next workshop is about leadership. And so what does it actually look like if you have a manager that's in place and you want to develop them, you can invite them for the very first time. Invite your managers to come to our May leadership workshop. But if you also, if you're looking at being able to hire your very first manager, it's going to be a great workshop for them as well. Just go to blueprintos.com— excuse me, workshop.blueprintos.com. You can register totally for free. I look forward to seeing you then. Till next time, lead well, And go be great.