Build a Business and Build a Community

Business Brain, episode 486 for Casual Friday, September 22, 2023. Greetings, folks, and welcome to Business Brain, the show where we take a couple of topics each episode. We dissect them, we analyze them, we talk about them in order to tune our business brains together and. And keep on living those charmed lives. Fast growing trees dot com. BusinessBrain is our sponsor for this episode. That's where you're gonna go to save 15% off your entire order now through October 15th. We'll talk more in depth about that in a little bit. For now, here in Durham, New Hampshire, I'm Dave Hamilton.

Hey. In Lafayette, California, I'm Shannon Jean. Happy Friday, man.

Happy Friday. So, you know, on social media, the general mo. The general path that most people take, or at least that I see, and certainly I participate in this as well, is sharing the highlight reel. Right. The successes. Here's what I did. Win, win, win, win, win. Like all this great stuff, right? Yep. However, I don't know that that is always the best path if you want to really engage with people. In fact, I find the opposite to be true.

Yeah, I, I would agree. I've been thinking about this lately because I've had a few. Also had a few experiences even in person. Like you're at an event or a party and you're talking or talking to a group of people. I think it's overlooked that the. Everybody's used to hearing success stories, right?

Yeah.

And talk, talk, talk. You try to kind of downplay it a little bit after you get, you know, get maybe get a little wiser. But when you talk about the mistakes and, or how you lost a bunch of money or some partner screwed you out of this or you bought the wrong product and this didn't work, I've just see the people kind of leaning in more and whether it's like I said at a. I recently had this happen at a volunteer event and I was asked to talk about, know what I did and that kind of stuff and kind of glazed eyes or whatever. So I decided to just tell a story about how I screwed up and it led me to get into this other business and the engagement way went way up. And I see it on social media as well. I see it on the X platform where people tell success stories all the time and they get a little bit of engagement like, hey, great job, that's a great story. But when people tell a story about how they really screwed up, I think the engagement is significantly higher.

Oh, and I. Yeah. And this makes perfect sense Right. Because people are going to engage when they feel comfortable, when they feel like there's some equality there, when they feel like there's something that resonates with them there. So if you have a great success and there's someone else who has had a similar success, then that's, you might get engagement from, from that person. Right, right. And certainly there is a world where, and we do some of it here with the show, where you can be aspirational to people, but you have to make sure that the gap isn't too wide. Right. You know, you don't want to be so far out that people just can't even fathom.

They kind of shut down.

They just shut down. Well, yeah, they have nothing to add to this because they don't understand it. There's nowhere to relate. There's nothing to sink their teeth into. But when you go and you talk about failure, you show a little bit of humility. We've all had failures, right? Like there's some people out there, I think we've all had successes too. But in some people's minds, they themselves have not had anything they consider a success, whether we would call it a success or not. Right?

But everybody is screwed up.

So we've all screwed up and we obsess over our screw ups in our own heads, right? So even if, you know, like, oh yeah, I've had some success, what's the thing that you think about all the time? It's like, oh yeah, that mistake I made, that stupid thing I did, you know, like that's the inner monologue is, is that often can be that, like, oh yeah, I screwed this up, I said a stupid thing, I bought a product, I spent money I shouldn't have. Like, yeah, whatever, right. You know, that kind of thing. People can relate to that. And then they also feel like there's, there's some equality, right. Like I, we're on the same level, you know, unless you use your mistakes to humble brag, Right. You know, you can like your story about how you, how you lost a million dollars. Right. You have to tell that story in a very careful way, otherwise it's going to separate you from people that can't fathom that. Right. Like they think, oh my gosh, I, I don't even, I've never managed a million dollars. Like, I don't know how I would. That doesn't make any sense to me. He's bragging, right? And yeah, yeah, you know, but, but I've heard you tell the story and, and, and you do it In a, in a. Often do it in a way that, where it's. It. I don't think it creates that much of a divide. It's insane.

Try to tell it about perseverance, overcoming, you know, when you, when you make a big mistake and that kind of thing. But I, the question I have, and I don't have the answer, but I'd like to explore it more maybe on a future episode, is how do you take that, that, that shared experience of screwing up and whatever. I mean, from a personal perspective, I know how, I know the power of it. But can we, can we do something with our businesses related to that concept? Yeah. And I don't have the answer. I would love to hear anybody's ideas on this feedback at BusinessBrain Show. But. And I'm going to come back and revisit this once I put a little bit more thought.

Really? That's a good question. Well, yeah, because you, you want to communicate something to your customers and prospective customers that instills confidence in them spending their money with you. So if you're just like, oh, yeah, no, we screwed that up. We screwed this up. It's like, well, how many things do you screw up? Like, what do you, what do you guys.

Yes.

You know, is this some kind of Mickey Mouse operation? Although I will say the Mickey Mouse operations, AKA the Disney company, you know, they like their theme parks, do really well. So, you know, maybe, maybe we should all run Mickey Mice operations. That being said, you really do want to instill confidence. You want to show that, yeah, we're here for you. But, but humble confidence, maybe that is the key. So think about that. And yeah, let us know. Feedback at, at BusinessBrain Show. All right, look, folks, fall is planting season. It's true. Actually, many plants do better when planted this time of year. But you have to know where to start. And this is why I love our sponsor, Fast Growing Trees at fast growing trees.com businessbrain. Fast growing trees is something that we have been using here at home and it makes things so easy. The experts at Fast Growing Trees curate thousands of plants so you can find the perfect fit for your specific climate, your location and your needs. It's great because you don't have to drive around to nurseries and big gardening centers. Fast Growing Trees makes it easy to order online and your plants are shipped to your door in like one to two days. We ordered a couple of trees from them and we planted them and one of them we weren't so sure about. And so, you know, we just reached Out. And their experts were like right there for us. They're like, nope, you're doing everything right. And sure enough, we did that. We did the things that they said and it is thriving. Plus they have their 30 day alive and thrive guarantee. Right. So that you really can trust, trust this because you're a listener to our show. You get 15% off your entire order when you go to fast growing trees.com businessbrain. But only through October 15th. So that's 15% off at fast growing trees.com businessbrain fast growingtrees.com businessbrain and our thanks to Fast Growing Trees for sponsoring this episode. So last episode, Shannon, we decided that you and I are all else being equal, which of course it never is. We're going to start businesses instead of buying businesses, right?

Yep, that's right.

One of the benefits of this you brought up to me that I want to dig into a little here.

Okay.

Yeah.

So we talk a lot about the kind of hidden benefits, tax, living a pre tax life, figuring out points, credit card mileage, all this kind of stuff. We talk about that stuff over and over because it's true. But one of the things I've been thinking about lately is there's this kind of unspoken benefit of the, of being able to build a community. When you put together your company and you hire people and you know, these are people that you are going to often be spending more time with than your family.

Right.

When you go to work, each day especially, you know, depends on your business.

Sure.

But that's, you know, it's a huge benefit if you do it right. If you do it wrong, it could be a disaster.

Oh, it is a disaster. I've, I've been involved in a business where I had a, I had a partner who really just created what would be called today a toxic environment. It was just, it was an, it was an environment where nobody trusted each other. Everybody. It was based on arguing and one upmanship and it was like really uncomfortable to, to be a part of it certainly wasn't productive in the way I like to be productive. But when you do it in a very, you know, in a way that does make people comfortable. I, I love that and I never thought about that when starting a business and in fact was my employees who. I remember John Martolero, he worked for us at the Mac observer and he started calling and he worked for us for a really long time. He started calling it, you know, the Mac observer family. And I was like, yeah, wait, he's right. And he said it A few times before. It, like, caught my ear in a. In a way that made me stop and think. He's like, oh, yeah, wait a minute. Like, we really have created this wonderful vibe here where people want to work together. And, you know, and then I started. That's when I took a step back and started looking at, you know, the various businesses that I have. It's like, wow, you know, these. I got people that I know could, like, go make on paper, make more money elsewhere, and yet they choose to stay here for, like, you know, decade plus, because they like the work environment and.

Yeah, and that's. That's a really good point. Is it? Because my. I'm coming from it as. It's a benefit for me as the business owner, but it's huge. Yeah, it is. But it's a huge benefit for your employees as well, your team, and it does build loyalty to where they do want to stay from you and not just take the.

The.

The salary.

I mean, you got to still pay them something fair, but competitively. Yeah, but. But, you know, there is. There is a little bit of wiggle room there. And, yeah, it matters to people. Yeah.

Yeah, it does. And I, you know, just a lot of the things that I talk about on the show, you know, where you're like, Friday, barbecue and coming in and walking around and talking to the people that work for you and checking in with them, make sure they're smiling, you know, what do you need? What can I. You know, because you're kind of at service to them, or you should consider being at service to them, because that. That really, you know, creates a lot of loyalty, and I love that. I actually, if there was one thing that I missed, I mean, I'm. On the one hand, I'm very happy not to have a bunch of employees anymore.

Sure.

But on the other hand, I really enjoyed rolling into the office and walking around, interacting with everybody in those Friday lunches. I love that. It was a big benefit to me on many levels, and I think that it's probably not talked about enough when we're talking about the benefits of running your own business versus just working for someone else.

Yeah. You get to pick your team. Like, quite literally, you get to. And you get to set the tone of how that team interacts with each other. It ultimately comes from you. No, it. It's. It was interesting when you suggested this as, you know, a topic for us to talk about today. I was like, man, like, I. I'm aware of this, and I don't think about it in a In an active sense, you know, like, it's. Yeah. Something I now know. But like I said, I learned from my employees. And even still, it's not like if somebody said, what's one of the best things about starting a business? I should put this on the list.

It wouldn't be on mine either.

Right.

And somebody pointed it out to me and I was like, wow, just the other day. And I was like, yeah, that's a really big deal.

It's a really big deal. Yeah.

You're there all the time, either physically or mentally. You're interacting with these people all the time. And, you know, it can either be great, it's always going to be bumpy. I mean, you always have to adjust here and there and of course. And hopefully gets better over time as you get better. You know, one of my favorite sayings is when you have to fire somebody, it's. It's a mistake. It's on management.

Right.

You either hired the wrong person or you didn't train them correctly.

Yeah. Or you have them in the wrong job. Yeah. I mean, which. Which is sort of a combination of the prior two. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

So it's a fascinating, you know, if you have stories about building your community, your team feedbackusbrain show, we'd love to hear it, talk about it, use your examples. And you could enter to win a MacBook Air.

Absolutely. Like he said. Feedbackusbrain show. You get entered to win that MacBook Air. I think we've got like 13 or 14 episodes left. I can't do the math in my head right now because it gets confusing when it's like that way, but. Fastgrowingtrees.com businessbrain keep living that charmed life and we'll see you next week.