Finding and Keeping Initiative for Your Small Business – Small Business Show 175

The Small business show episode 175 for Wednesday, June 13, 2018. Greetings, folks, and welcome to the Small Business show here at BusinessShow Co, the show that is by, for yes and about small business owners. Here are sponsors for this this episod episode this week include Simple Contacts. We're@simplecontacts.com SBS. You save 30 bucks off your first order. And Textexpander from smile@textexpander.com podcast where you save 20% off your first year's subscription. We'll talk more about all of that in a moment here. Back in Durham, New Hampshire, I'm Dave Hamilton.

And in Lafayette, California, I'm Shannon Jean. How are you doing, Dave?

I'm good. Fighting with some technical issues today, but, you know, that's how it goes.

Yeah. Yeah. You got the right. The right support around you to get that.

I do.

Inside your head.

I know how to do it.

Yeah, yeah.

I'm the right guy.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I've been pushing my daughter more and more into the tech support role around here, which has been fantastic, and it's good to be able to pass the baton a little bit.

It is. I, years ago, the first time, I had to open up an imac, which requires suction cups and, like, you know, you got to pull the glass off the front of those things these days. Yeah, it's kind of miserable. But I, I enlisted the help of my daughter. At the time, she was probably, you know, 12 or 13 or something, and. And now she is like the master at taking apart imax and she knows how to roll the dust off before you put it back and all that stuff. And so.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

But it's great.

Like, it. I mean, it. A, it's really nice to have the help. B, it's nice to do something with my kids, but. But C, it gives her the confidence to be like, oh, yeah, this, this stuff's not really. It's not really that hard. I mean, it's kind of a nightmare because you got to take all the pieces out, but it's not difficult. It's just. You just do it, you know, you just do it.

Right.

Just. Good. You just got to have the initiative to get it done. Right.

Yeah. Don't be afraid of. Of what you don't know.

Right.

Yeah.

That's good. I like that. Yeah, that is a good mantra. We could. We could use that. Use that here. So that. And that. That. What I want to talk about today on the show, I want to talk about initiatives and In a couple of different ways. And you know, when you look up the definition of initiative, it's like, oh, you know, the ability to assess and initiate things independently, that's actually the definition of initiative.

Is that right? Yeah, because it's like definition should not be self referential.

Right.

The word initiative shouldn't be in there.

Shouldn't he be in there? I agree, it's not really helpful. We've talked about helping people, empowering them to have the initiative to, you know, get your small business started and how critically important that is to take those first steps. We've talked about it for hours. You know, on this show we've lost many hours. Yes, yes, yes. And it's, it's, it's great. And I, I want to focus on a couple of other different types of initiative. But, but let's go over just kind of a quick primer, if you will, on using your initiative to get yourself started. And, and what I do when I'm trying to start something new, which is quite often, and I thought I'd go down my list, Dave, and you can add, you know, and anything. But the first thing I always try to do is when I'm trying to get things going and motivate myself to start something too, is I always pretend. And now I don't even think I'm pretending. I just, I always pretend there are no barriers to anything I want to do. There's no reason at this point to think of why something wouldn't work. You just can't even be in your vocabulary at this point. Along the same lines, I really believe at this point that I have unlimited resources. So I'm getting started. There's nothing in my way. I have every resource at my disposal. Money, talent, whatever it is, I have it. And this helps me keep myself going, getting my ideas down, what's going to happen? And then also one thing that when I say this to people, they kind of look at me funny sometimes, but I don't let common sense get in my way.

Yes.

And what I mean by that is it's just so easy to say no or that won't work or whatever.

And well, we all have that inner naysayer, right, where I mean, when somebody else tells you they're gonna, they're, they're going to, or they are in the process of doing something different new, off the beaten path, out of the box, whatever. It is like it's easy for all of us, even those of us that have done those things, to say, oh, dude, it'll never work. It'll never work. He's crazy. I know. I do it all the time. And you have to ignore that, not only in yourself, but in everybody else that's thinking that and might communicate that to you in one way or another. Yeah.

Oh, absolutely, Absolutely. So getting rid of that. Okay. You know, just in any nonsensical way, you could still do these things. You know, you're still at this early stage. And then I also think at this point, first I was going to say don't share anything with anybody else, but that's not correct. Actually. You only want to share your ideas, your story, your concept, this thing that you're building with people that are going to encourage you. You could certainly share it with guys like Dave and I because we're all over that stuff and we love talking about new things and coming up. So if you have people in your life or you just want to share it with us, you can send it to Feedback at Business Show Co. You.

Know, I would, I would actually love that. And, and I do. Yeah, it would be great. Well, we'll hold all your stuff in confidence here. I mean, obviously if somebody sues us and you're, you know, they issue a subpoena, then we got to deliver it. But otherwise, you know, you are safe until a subpoena here. So really we would, we would love that and we can encourage you. And it's not just if you're starting a brand new business, if you're in your business and in a rut and, and you're trying to get out of it and you just want to like, brain dump on us. Feedbackusinessshow. Co. Absolutely. Absolutely.

Yeah. And that'd be great. And we're gonna come back and talk about that rut things. I think that's really important.

Yeah.

You know, the thing about sharing and I like your, you know, looking at the show notes here, share carefully. That's really good because, you know there's going to be plenty of time for people to tell you it won't work. And there's going to be all kinds of naysayers that are going to come around, but you're not ready for those yet. You're. It' this new thing that, like this little hatchling, you know, that you're trying to bring along, so you want to only present or share with people that are going to help build you up because it's kind of raw right now. The point of all this, in my experience, and again, I'm only talking about my experience and what works for me is you kind of trick your brain into envisioning that you're, you're envisioning your success before it happens. You're really training your mind to see things in a different light. You're already successful, successful. You're already done. And you're going to have a much more powerful tool inside your head to kind of drag you along through this. What can be a very arduous process to bring this idea, concept, product, whatever you have, to fruition. So that's a little bit about it. And we'll put some links in the show notes from some older shows where we talk a lot about getting started and all that stuff. But today, coming back to your comment about ruts, you know, I want to talk about two different types of initiative. One, having the initiative to pull yourself out of a rut, or when you hit a wall with your existing business, what do you do? And secondly, helping your employees have the initiative to move your business forward to solve some really nasty problems that are going to come up. So I want to talk about that for a little bit.

Yeah.

All right.

You know. Yeah, these ruts, it's so easy, right? Especially once you have a little bit of, to get trapped in that thought of, can I do it again?

Right.

You know, and, and, and it's easy to get caught in a rut. Like if you are, if you are starting from nothing, right? And you have nothing and you need to have a business succeed right away. You know, the, the risk of, of trying something and failing is, is much less than doing nothing, right? It's, it's painful. That's actually true all the time. But it's very obvious that you can't just sit there and wait for this business to start itself, right? You, you have to do all of the things to get it going, right? And then you get it going and then it's like, okay, wait, it's working. I don't want to rock the boat, right? There's that mindset of just keep the train on the tracks.

Let.

It's good. This is great. You know, we found the right formula. And it's easy to say, oh, maybe we shouldn't do that new thing, because we've got this thing going already, right? Whereas, like I said, when you're starting out, doing nothing will lead you nothing. That is exactly true. When you're midway down the path of your business, too, doing nothing will get you nothing, and you have to remove that. And it's really hard at times. Not all the time, but at times it's really hard and that's when this initiative thing, you have to have some tricks. At least I have to have some tricks to get myself out of that rut. And one of the tricks I do is I make a to do list. I almost split my brain and manage myself. So it's okay. I need me. I am one of my own resources in my business, and so I need me to do X, Y, and Z in order for whatever needs to be done to get done and succeed and all of that. So I'll make myself a list, and I hold myself accountable to the list, just like I would hold one of my employees or a contractor or anything. It's like, I need you to do this job. I'm paying you to do this job. Go do this job. And it's weird because, you know, you're kind of doing this for yourself. And I don't know that I've ever even talked about this to anybody before, but it is what I do and helps. It doesn't. It's not the magic formula, but it is. It helps sort of frame it, and then suddenly it's not the unknown anymore, Right. It's like, oh, I know what to do. So now I can march down my own path and do it.

Right.

But you have to do well.

I think it's great.

I find it easy. Yeah.

Yeah. And I think it's great because it also kind of breaks it down into actionable steps that can kind of help you see it as pieces instead of this giant thing that you can't get through. Right?

Totally. I always say that I use calculus every day, and I don't mean that I'm doing, you know, integrals and derivatives every day, but what I learned in calculus was you have this monumental problem, right? And. And you need to break it down into the simplest steps that you can find. And then it's easy. And you do all of these little steps and wow. Hey, look. The major, monumental problem is now solved. That's the calculus that I use every day. It's like, okay, just break it down, break it down, break it down. Okay. Can we envision this at this level? Yeah. Okay, then go. Here we go. Yeah, that's cool.

And you know when you're starting a company and getting things going, your new product line, whatever, is. It's exciting, and you kind of get in this river of momentum, if you will, and it pulls you along, and it pulls everybody along, and it's great. And nobody's thinking about what's maybe coming down, but. But eventually there's going to Come a time when you get stuck and you don't know what to do, you maybe you'll feel. You feel powerless. You're not. You maybe feel ineffective. So, you know, I have some. Some things that I do to, you know, try to reach back to find that spark that. To get your initiative going again. And, you know, I always say I'm really selfish. And one of the reasons why I'm doing this topic on the show today is because I'm using some of these tricks right now with one of my businesses that I'm just kind of like, blah, you know, what am I going to do? You know, I'm not motivated. And so this really, even this. Maybe this is like your list, Dave, or just sitting down and putting together the notes for the show helped me to put things in perspective and kind of, you know, push me forward again, which is great.

And it really is the act of putting things down, either on paper or in an evernote or wherever you're going to put it. But. But seeing it, not just taking a walk and thinking about, oh, yeah, oh, okay, I can do this. No, put it somewhere where you can read it back to yourself and revisit it down the road if you need to. But that act of sort of writing and typing or whatever it is, logging it somewhere makes for me, makes a big difference. It sounds like it does for you.

It's powerful.

Yeah, it does.

And one of the things that helps me too, is we've talked about it on the show here a number of times is your success list. And if you don't have a success list, need to create one. And we've got a page up on the business show co where you can get some tips up there. And that reviewing your success list, no matter how small or large those successes are, can really help you, kind of pull you out of the doldrums, if you will. Oh, yeah, look at. I can achieve these things. Look what I did. I did that. I remember. Oh, we did this thing. I forgot all about that. I solved that problem. And sometimes you just need to, you know, pat yourself on the back. We've talked about on the show a bunch of times, there's often no one else to pat you on the back but yourself as a small business owner. And so looking at the success list, keeping it handy can be very, very helpful. And I would suggest that's a great place to start. And the second is, the second thing to look at is look at your system. And what I mean by that is, you know, if you got these Big, hairy, audacious goals hanging out there, and they look just massively complex and hard to attain, and you're just really getting beat down. Well, you got to flip that on its head and create that system that you can use to have achievements all along the way. That, again, gives you momentum, propels you forward. Calculus. You got it. And we talk a lot about that system. We just did a show on it one or two episodes ago, and we'll link in there. But, you know, look at your system, and if you don't have one, now's the time to create it. Because that, again, breaking things down, putting notes together, helping you create that system to move yourself forward is great. Yeah, yeah, for sure. And I also think now. Now's the time to talk. You know, we just say, hey, don't say anything to anybody yet, but you've already achieved things. People know that you're successful. Now's the time to talk to your board of directors, if you will, your. Whoever your peers are that you enjoy and that encourage you, whether it's fellow business owners, whether it's Dave and shannon@feedbackusinessshow.co, whether it's your banker, your attorney, talk to them and say, man, I'm really kind of having a problem with this, and I want to get through and tip people will. People want to help. It makes them feel better to help.

It makes. When you can especially, you know, it's really hard to put yourself in somebody else's shoes and see yourself as they see you. But if. If I could interpret how I think, like, most of my, like, local friends or the parents of, you know, kids that. That I interact with, I. I think they all think I'm, like, way more successful than I am.

Right.

And.

Yeah.

And. And so it makes difficult for them to offer advice.

Right?

Because they think, well, what can I tell that guy? But as soon as you. As soon as you admit some level of failure, weakness, interest in hearing someone's advice about a problem because they might have more information than you. Uncertainty. There you go.

Yeah.

Whatever that is. Communicating that to someone a. Makes you seem more human and, you know, less of a jackass, potentially, but also, like, endears them to you and they're like, oh, wait, I can help you with this. Or I have some advice to share. I don't know if it's going to help, man, but happy to, you know, like that kind of thing. But it's hard, right, because we talk all the time about convincing ourselves that we're invincible and successful and everything's going to work, just like you said at the beginning of the show, pretending there's no barriers, unlimited resources like this, you know, it's a little bit delusional, Right, but you need a little bit of delusion, and then you kind of have to come back around at that point. Yeah, at that point. And it's different things for different stages. But you, you know, don't overdo it, though. Make sure you revisit that success list. Make sure you, you know, remind yourself that you're, you know, you. You are competent. You've. You've had. You can do things, trust that you will be able to do things again. You know, all of that, like, you don't want to completely, you know, crater yourself and dissolve your. Your confidence, but it is good. Other people are going to have good ideas when you don't. Or at the very least, you talk it out with somebody. You know, I noticed this when I'm fixing somebody's computer, right. Family member needs help, or when I was doing the consulting thing or whatever, I would always find that I would talk through what I was doing and why with whoever was there. Now, mostly, you know, I learned to do it because that way customers saw that there was value. But what I found was it actually is valuable because in talking out the problem, you see the solution as you're saying it.

Right.

It's that same thing as writing down your task list. Talking it out with someone else, even if they have no idea what you're talking about, you know, it can help. So it's part of what we use for.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. You know, the thing I like about that, talking with other people, too, and I think is being vulnerable. It's okay to be vulnerable at this time. Yes. When. When you, you know, in the beginning, you want to be powerful and nothing's going to stop me and that kind of thing. But you know it. When you're in a rut, you need some. You got to know, I need some help. And you can talk. And it's. It's good to be vulnerable. And for many, many reasons that you just covered, one of which I like the best is it endears people to you more. Even your employees, partners, whatever it is, it they. They know. Oh, I can be. I can be helpful. This guy doesn't know it. All right, I like that.

Yep.

I think that's great.

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So now let's talk about.

Jump back in on this.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Creating initiative in our.

Yeah. So you've got this whole thing, and you're rocking it, and you're doing fine, but you're being let down by other people, whether it's an employee or a partner, you know, that kind of thing. It can be very challenging to get that. To get somebody motivated and get them going. And you kind of have to flip it on its head. Right. You've got to be the one that they're coming to. You've got to be the one offering those tips. But, you know, there's some other things you can do, too first. You know, look at. You've created this system, right? And your employees are following your system to eventually achieve whatever it is you want. Make sure that they. They're aware of that and they're in it, and they know that these are the steps that we're taking daily, weekly, monthly, whatever it is, to achieve success with our system. I found a lot of times where an employee or maybe even a partner, and I'm holding my quotes up, may not know what that system is, or they lose track of what the system is, and they just kind of flounder and start showing up to work just to do their regular routine job over and over again. And I would suggest that in this day and age, that's just not enough. If you want to be really successful, you've got to constantly be trying new things and taking initiative to come up with new solutions.

Absolutely.

So, yeah, I think that's really important.

It's frustrating, right? I guarantee, like, prepare yourself for this frustration as soon as you involve anyone else in your business, and I don't say that to discourage you, I say, I mean, few business. Some prepare you. Yes. Yeah. Because few businesses can succeed at the level that they should succeed with just one person involved.

Right.

You generally are going to need more people either maybe not employees, maybe you can, you know, get away with just having some contractors or whatever, but you're going to have your vision that you are going to communicate to someone else, and then they are going to take some steps to help further you along that path. And it will be frustrating even if you're dealing with people that are super productive, because they're not going to be productive in exactly the same way you are. That's actually part of why you hire them. But.

Yeah, that's true.

Yeah. But, you know, just like we talked about how we can get into ruts, so can everyone else.

Right.

And hopefully you aren't all in a rut at the same time, but that's where the frustration happens.

Right.

You're driving along. You've got an employee, or I'll use your air quotes, partner, that is not driving along at the time. That's where, you know, some friction can very quickly develop. And, and it's important to recognize this and, and figure out how to deal with it, perhaps in a more constructive way than, you know, telling someone that they're unproductive, because that's generally unproductive. Although, you know, sometimes it happens.

Yeah, that's true. Yeah. Yeah. So certainly looking at, you know, making sure they're following along and on the same page with you on that system that you've developed, and another thing that I think works really well, and this works well for yourself as well as them, is changing a habit. You know, I'm not a huge fan of habits. They make you feel comfortable, but they often lead right into a rut, you know, and when you were the one.

That said to me, grooves become ruts.

Yeah. You know, you kind of get over and over and over again. You kind of just see people just start phoning it in, you know, and so when. When someone's not performing and doesn't. Not taking the initiative to do things, I think you need to change their habit. And you have that power as a business owner, and these folks are working for you. If it's a partner, it's a little bit different, but you can still do it. And what I mean by that is it could be anything. You could change their entire job. You could take a piece of their job and give it to someone else and give a different part to them. You could change their hours. It may be something as simple as that. It's like, hey, look, you're constantly late, or you're not getting these things done in the morning. You know, whatever. Change your hours.

I've had good success with that one in the past. Changing people's hours and moving it around. Yeah, yeah. Because it just, like you said, it breaks it up. It forces people to look at things a little differently. That's it. Yep. Yeah.

What you want to do. Just. Just like, sometimes you have to pull yourself out of your comfort zone. You definitely have to pull your teammates, your peers, your suppliers, even your partners and your employees for sure. Out of their comfort level and then just kind of change things up. One of the things we used to do, we had a sales team years ago, and I could just tell everybody was just doing the same thing, and we'd all kind of, you know, sit around. I'm like, okay, I just want to change a venue. So I started holding the sales meeting on the roof of our building, and, you know, we had to walk out. We had to climb this ladder. I had set chairs up there before, and we met out there on a weekly basis, and it was always, you know, kind of laugh and joke, but it really opened everybody's heads up, if you will, to talk in a different way and just, you know, why can't you have your sales meeting in the park? You know, why can't you go to the lake and have a meeting and change things and just. Just something different than about the. The way you've been doing it day in and day out? It can be really powerful.

I like that. That. Yeah, no, that's. That's good. Yeah. Just.

It works.

That's interesting. Yeah. Huh. Even. Even proactively, kind of don't wait until you're in the room.

Right.

You know, it just.

Yeah, sure.

Like, make a. Make a schedule and remind yourself to change something every six months or, you know, whatever it is. Yeah, that's a good idea. I. You know, there is a difference between. As we're. As we're talking about this, I'm realizing there's a difference between helping your employees and. Or contractors out of a rut or. And helping your partners out of a rut.

Right.

And the difference. The way I see it, is your employees, you know, they rely on you for their income. They, you know, it's. It's. They do not have a stake in the business. They didn't start it with you or, you know, there's, there's no involvement at that level. Even though you might have some long term and very loyal employees, there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, I've got many of them and I rely on them as much as they rely on me.

Sure.

But it's a different relationship.

Right.

You know, they could easily leave and go work for someone else.

Right.

That, that, that will be my definition of an employee or a contractor.

Right.

They could, they could terminate the relationship. I could terminate the relationship. No problem. With a partner, you know, you're kind of locked in together, you know, you both own a piece of the business or whatever that is. There's more, more of a connection there that, that's fundamental to the way the business goes. And with that comes, needs to come, the freedom to speak freely.

Right.

And so if I'm caught in a rut or my partner's caught in a rut, we need to be able to just pretty much tell the other person, hey, you're screwing off, you're not getting done what needs to get done. Like you can get rid of some of those filters there and just talk efficiently. And maybe that's just me, but I think it's really necessary. You gotta be able to talk freely.

Yeah. And it comes with time, I think too is knowing that you have that really good relationship. And we probably will do another show on partnership communication and really delve into it because there's an. I think there's a lot to be said to your point about that free communication, not having to dance around things. I think it's definitely worth expanding into more.

For sure, for sure.

Along the lines, one of the things that I learned from a guy named Don Ruxton, when I first got in the Apple business, I used to work at a place when I was in college called the Mac Garage. And he taught me this lesson and I think of it often, even all these years ago or years later, is he said, what is it? What are you really interested in besides this business or making money or whatever it is? What is your passion project, if you will? And at the time when we were, I was like, oh, I want to learn all about online stuff and the Internet. And he was like, great, we'll make sure you have some time and the resources to do that because you're going to get burnout, you're going to get bored or whatever it is. So you always want to have this thing to dip back into. And I really believe that. And I've often would say to a new employee, it's like look, what are you really interested in? And they're like, well, I want to work on computers or whatever. Okay, no, but what are you really interested in?

Yeah, yeah, right.

They would mention something or I like doing this or doing that and say, great, well, how can you do some of that here? How can we use our resources? Do you like doing this? Or. I'm into music. Great. Put up your own website on our server, whatever it is, because it kind of feeds the soul, if you will, and it keeps us going because, let's face it, there's going to be days when you're just kind of dragging, going, man, I got to do this again. And this kind of thing. So just like, I think we all should have our own. But you want to let your employees have a. Let's call it a passion project. And what happens is. And I call it sideways thinking, because you're really not thinking about the business or problems, but it's still on the peripheral. And you be surprised at how often something will just pop into your head to solve a problem or a new way to approach something because you've taken your mind off of it for a little bit. I think it's really a powerful way to let your folks, you know, have some of that enjoyment at work.

I like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've always encouraged people to, you know, explore whatever they need to explore. But I like. I've never asked someone that question and then intentionally gone and like, that's a really good idea.

Yeah, it works because, you know, then you can. Then you can kind of squeeze a little bit more. You want more time to work on your project or you got to get this stuff done first, you know, it's a little motivator, you know, and then I think they also, your employees, you should encourage them to have a success list, you know, kind of a subset maybe of your business success list is, you know, what did they do in the past to help you succeed? And. Or did they figure out a problem? Did they. Like in our case, it was, oh, you got your Apple certification. Great. You got your A. You did this. You solved this problem. You knew the guy who worked for me that figured out how to put a matte finish screen in a glossy MacBook Pro and Apple discontinued the matte finish screen was a hero. And I would constantly remind him of that. So encouraging your employees to have their own success list and they can post it on the wall right next to their computer or whatever, so you can remind them because they're constantly, oh, I don't know. What to do. I can't figure this out. He said, look, you figured all that out. Look at what a badass you really are, you know, and help them feel better about themselves. It'll. It'll literally spur some initiative in them.

I like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Right, right.

Yeah. The successless work. That's good.

Yeah. And the last thing I really. I would say, and we could do a whole show on this, too, but give your people autonomy, tell them what their job is, and really try to let them run with it. And I believe they will be far more fulfilled than if they are micromanaged. And they will have far more initiative because they will take much more ownership in their job, their. Their department. Your company autonomy is a very powerful motivator. And if. And if your folks don't feel that way, I don't think they're ever going to perform the way you really want them to.

No, it's true.

You have to kind of step back. Yeah.

And I'm an awful micromanager. It just like I like it. It is my tendency, if unchecked, I would micromanage everything.

Right.

You know, because. Well, a different way, you know, to do that because I. Because I'm a systems guy.

Right.

I want to. I want to make everything as efficient as possible. And I, you know, my intentions are sound, but I know that this is not actually a good thing. So I always tell people when I first hire them, I say, look, I don't want to micromanage you, and I am going to do everything I can not to. But you have permission to tell me if I'm micromanaging you. But here's the thing. If I feel like I have to micromanage you every day, then this can no longer work.

Right.

I need to trust, and I want.

To trust in your business, I think. Yeah.

Right.

I need to. Yeah. People that are working for me, are they writing content it, you know, and posting it out there with our name on it or doing sales, and that's in our name. And I, you know, I'm not on every one of those calls. I. I don't want to be. I don't want to have to review every email that goes out.

Right.

That's a waste of time. But if I feel like I have to, then we have a problem.

Right.

So it's like I'm giving you the autonomy. Ask me when you have problems. Don't hide problems.

Right.

Because. Because this is my tendency is to micromanage. And if I think you're hiding things, then I'M going to have to dig in. It's just going to be what happens. So I need to trust. It's a two way street.

Right.

I want you to have autonomy, go do your thing, but keep the lines of communication open. Yeah, yeah.

And I think you can use technology and automation in a way to feed your propensity to micromanage but not quite seem like you are like textexpander like we were talking about. You can have, you know, all of the ways you want questions answered all pre filled out in your automation software. That's very quick and saves everybody time and you know that things are going to be answered the way you would like them to answer. So you definitely can and there's a bunch of, you know, different tools that you can use to do that. I think it works well, you know, and these are just a few ideas, a few tips that have really helped me over the years. But we would love to hear from you. What's worked for you, for your business, for yourself. You know, what inspires you? How do you create initiative with your team? Feedbackusinessshow Co. Or you can come visit the small business support group on Facebook @businessshow Co Facebook. We would love to have you be part of the conversation.

That would be awesome. It's good stuff, man. Yeah. And really do send us your stuff. Feedbackusshow co. I'd love to be your sounding board. Even if we can't help, you know, we might be able to, but even if we can't. Yep. You, you just tapping that email out to us might actually be the thing that helps you get out of your rut. And man, if we can all be a part of helping each other out of those ruts when they happen, then the business show co family is doing way better. All of us. All right, that's, that's what we got for today. Let's. We'll see you next week I guess is the is the trick there, right?

We will see you next week.

See you next week. Keep living that charmed life, folks. We'll help each other do it.