Ep 477 | My Top 11 Business Lessons From 2024

Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. Well, it's been about a month since the conclusion of 2024, and I've had an opportunity to to really reflect on 2024, that year, and think through, gosh, what were the ideas or the lessons, I should say, that I learned in 2024? What were the biggest lessons from the past year? And what I found, this was an odd number, there were 11 business lessons that I wrote down based on the notes I had taken, the conversations I had had, the emails I had sent, the posts I'd made on social. After reviewing all that, there was 11, 11 top business lessons from, from 2024, and I'd like to run through them today. The hope here is that 1 or 2 or 7 of these lessons are applicable in your world, and in learning them or hearing about them today, it prompts you into action so that your 2025 is the best year ever. So really, in no exact order, let's run through this list. The first one, execution over ideation. The lesson was execution over ideation. There's a significant difference or distinction between good and great entrepreneurs, and I think it lies in execution. Great entrepreneurs take action. Great entrepreneurs focus on tangible outcomes. Instead of endlessly strategizing. That's what good entrepreneurs do. They strategize nonstop. Great. Get into motion. I talked around this to the people I coach and to my Metrics Mastermind group and any, any email correspondence or social media posts. When I look at these things, I just found myself talking an awful lot about execution. And even in my own world, I had to remind myself, okay, you've planned and strategized enough. Now, if you really are going to be great, it's time to go execute. Lesson number 1, execution over ideation. Lesson number 2, build systems, not dependence. Build systems, not dependence. Strong businesses thrive on scalable systems, not on individual heroics. And, and that seems like an obvious statement. It shouldn't be a lesson, but it was for me. Because when I truly look in the mirror and reflect on my actions or how I run different companies, sometimes I rely more on what I would call individual heroics. Not that I'm a hero by any stretch, but just individual efforts. And the truth of the matter is, the best businesses thrive on scalable systems. So the lesson was build systems, not dependence. Build systems, not dependence on any individual. When, when I taught leadership in 2024 to entrepreneurs, there was a— there was definitely a focus on developing systems that empower teams to succeed without relying solely on the owner or the leader. And this focus on scalability just really kind of reinforced how critical systems are to long-term success. So lesson number 2: build systems, not dependence. Lesson number 3: pain equals opportunity. Pain equals opportunity. Now, if you've ever sold anything, you probably know that in sales, what you're, what you're attempting to do is ask a number of powerful questions such that you learn about what your prospect wants and more specifically what they're trying to avoid. In other words, when I say pain equals opportunity, solving significant pain points for customers or for businesses, it creates the most lucrative opportunities in business. Where you could find pain is where you could find some profit potential. And again, that's very specific to business. So whether that's, you know, helping a, a real estate client, or it's addressing some sort of property management inefficiency if that's your business, or it's You know, you looking to expand your service offerings? Where there's pain, there is in fact profit. Pain equals opportunity. That was a great lesson for me in '24. Number 4, something I was focused on really in Q4 of 2024, and that was flywheels. The lesson was flywheels, flywheels build momentum. Sustainable success comes from creating a flywheel effect. When you build an ecosystem where every single part or component reinforces the next part or component, you build momentum, you create sustainable success. This flywheel effect, um, or flywheel build momentum lesson, it influenced how I approached our Metrics business, our property management business, Place, the business that I spent a lot of my time in, and various other places where I operate, businesses where I operate. I leveraged this flywheel throughout because I found the power in the flywheel. Again, the lesson was that flywheels build momentum and successful businesses look for that flywheel effect. Lesson number 5, embrace accountability without losing culture. Embrace accountability without losing culture. The lesson here, a culture of accountability and of high standards can actually thrive alongside positivity. That was maybe a lesson I had to relearn. I think sometimes we believe, wrongly believe, that our culture may suffer if we introduce firmer accountability. And that's, that's just not, that's just not right. That's just wrong. I think when you instill more accountability into your organization, there's ways to balance tough expectations while still maintaining trust and still maintaining the motivation and the love that your team has. Now, that, that's heavily dependent on clear communication and alignment with shared goals. Bottom line though is you can embrace accountability in your organization without losing culture. That was a That was a big lesson relearned for me in 2024. Number 6, focus on high leverage activities. In other words, not all efforts are equal. Focus on the activities that drive exponential results. As a matter of fact, in yesterday's episode, you know, just, just, just yesterday, I was talking about the power law from Peter, Peter Thiel in the book Zero to One. The power law was about focusing your effort on the thing or the things that have the potential to produce exponential results, as opposed to diversifying or spreading your efforts equally. So the lesson in 2024 was more than just kind of Pareto's principle, 80/20. It was really, you know, focusing on the high-leverage activities and saying no to everything else. Don't spread your resources thin. Double down, triple down on the things that matter most and can create the greatest exponential opportunity. Number 7, use setback— setbacks to sharpen decision-making. In 2024, I had a setback or two or three, and what I learned was that I had to avoid compounding mistakes. I had to control emotional reaction. I had to prioritize long-term thinking. The lesson again was to use setbacks to sharpen decision-making. I had talked about in an episode, uh, Keith Cunningham, and I told his story about, uh, a double bogey. And a double bogey is just a bad shot followed by a stupid shot. A double bogey, again, in golf is a bad shot followed by a stupid shot. The idea here is pause before you react. This mindset— mindset, I'm sorry— shaped, uh, my ability to think a little bit better strategically when under pressure. So number 7, what as use setbacks to sharpen decision-making. Number 8, leverage challenges for personal growth. The lesson was challenges, whether they be physical or business-related, uh, business-related, they actually reveal insights about you, about yourself, and they, if channeled properly, they help you grow. Now, I talked about this in 2024 from the endurance athlete perspective. I talked about, you know, these different things that I do because I'm looking to push myself to that point of damn near failure. Because I find that when you get there, you learn an awful lot about yourself. When you have to push through pain, when you have to push through that moment where you think that you ought to give up. Well, That really runs parallel with business building. So perseverance, resilience, these things have to be developed, have to be built. Again, the lesson here: leverage all challenges that you face as an opportunity for personal growth. Number 9, separation happens in the margins. Small extra efforts especially during slow periods, or especially when, when others are taking a break. These small extra efforts create big gaps in performance in comparison to others. This, this concept again was the Ed Mylett, you know, December is separation season. You know, in December when everyone slows down, you speed up. That really resonates resonated with me. It resonated with me in '23. It resonated with me again in '24. I embraced this lesson and I believe it's what led to differentiating, you know, our businesses. When everybody else was resting or relaxing, we got more focus, we went harder, we prioritized, and we really put in extra effort during slow periods. The lesson again, separation happens in the margins. Number 10, storytelling. Storytelling builds influence. And Matthew Dix, the guy I had visit Metrix last year and I also interviewed on the podcast, that, that was the big lesson from him. Authentic stories create connection and impact. And, and I think I had undervalued storytelling, and that was a big lesson for me. The ability to tell a story builds influence. Storytelling builds influence. So maybe it's, it's, you know, the way I use storytelling or attempt to use storytelling here in the podcast. I think that that drives better episode and creates more influence. Or my ability to tell stories to a, to a potential client helps me connect, helps me make an impact. That builds some influence. Or if I'm standing up in front of a company and I could tell some stories that bring a concept to life, it builds some influence. Storytelling inspires. It influences others in business and, and in life. So the lesson with storytelling builds that influence. And then lastly, number 11 of my 11 business lessons from 2024: think bigger but stay grounded. Think bigger but stay grounded. The lesson here: aspirations should be ambitious, no question about it, but humility, I think, keeps success sustainable. I think that there's a number of things that I'm personally involved in where I, I have these big goals or aspirations. They're very ambitious, and I think in 2024 one thing I had to think around quite a bit was while I have these big goals and these aspirations, it's really important to stay grounded. I think it's really important to have humility because I think that humility, in other words, never thinking you're great, I think it keeps success sustainable. You got to maintain a balance between thinking big and ensuring grounded execution. Aligning with your value if you have a core value of humility, like, like I do for my family. So think bigger but stay grounded. So these are my 11 business lessons from 2024. I'm wondering if any of these themes resonated for you. Uh, that's the focus today. Maybe go back to this episode, go through these lessons, And I didn't get to do a deep dive on each of them, but the 11 I wrote down for myself, maybe a couple of them make a difference for you and you ought to go do a little bit more thinking or research. And by the way, it's not too late for you to think around your 2024 and document what you learned so that you can anchor back, you go back to that knowledge, you don't lose it, but you build upon it in 2025 and beyond. That's all I have for you today, the No Days Off Podcast. Thank you so much for listening, and remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.