Take Out The Trash!

Business brain, episode 468 for Friday, July 21, 2023. Greetings folks and welcome to Business Brain, the show where we take a topic, we analyze it, we try to look at it together and really collectively help tune our business brains so, so that we're better at the things that we do and we can keep on living that charmed life. Sponsors for this episode include Pearl Diver IO where you can really find out who is visiting your website. You got to check this out. We'll talk more in depth about that in a little bit. For now, still here in Durham, New Hampshire. I'm Dave Hamilton.

I'm still out here in Lafayette, California.

Dave, amazing.

Good to talk to you. Happy Casual Friday.

Happy casual Friday. Yeah, I didn't say that in the intro. Yeah, yeah, that's right.

You know, I used to joke with our employees since we dressed casually every day and you know, shorts and we, we, I would have them wear lab coats when they had to go meet with the customers. But that's another story altogether. But I used to joke and say, look, we're going to start formal Friday so you actually have to dress, dress good. But of course I was joking around. But yeah, it's an interesting take on things.

Yeah, well, I mean, and that's a, I think that's a good thing to do is like showing some levity, you know, some like humility, a little bit of self effacing humor, you know, here and there. I like and, and high using that to highlight some of the perks that you already are already offering your people like it. It's difficult if, for your employees, if every day, you know, you, if I like, if I were to sit down and remind my people, oh, it's great, you know, you're super flexible. We're super flexible here. Not only do you get to work from home, but you know, your hours can be, you know, sort of self defined. A lot of your work here, certainly there's things that need to get done, but we also leave room for the things that, you know, that you'll want to do in life, but also things at work like creativity of starting new projects and those sorts of things. Like, we definitely leave a lot of that room for people. But if I were to sit down and say that every day it would start to like, people would be like, yeah, dude, we know. But like they have to get it. Congratulating yourself. Right?

You have to get it by osmosis. Right.

Well, but you can, you can seed the osmosis like you did. Right. Like, because One of the perks for the people who work for you was that they got to be, you know, dress casually every day, not just Friday, but you pointing out, like, hey, you know, we dress casually every day. Let's, let's do formal Friday. Obviously, no one's gonna think that that's serious, but it allow. Because they aren't treat. Because they're treating it as, oh, Shannon's just telling a joke. But in that joke, you're reminding them of a perk. Right?

Yeah, yeah. It's good persuasion if you.

It's good persuasion. Yeah, it's just a reminder. I mean, it's, you know, let's keep this up.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's cool. And I, I, I love that because, you know, we always used to say things to your prospective employees, and I, I would always say, hey, if, you know, if they had kids and you talk about kids or whatever, and I said, look, you'll never miss a, a kid's sporting event or dance recital or have to worry about, you know, taking your kid to the doctor, you know, because that flexibility is just built in. It's like, we will cover you and make sure that. Because that's what. That's. It's life. And it makes people. It endears them to you and your company more when you can offer those kinds of things.

Totally.

I think it's great.

No, and I think, I think this is an important thing for, for us as business owners, business managers, you know, whatever your, Your role officially is, is to sit and look at what are the perks that I offer my people. Because you're just like. Your employees will take many of them for granted. You will take perhaps a few less than your employees will, but you will wind up taking some of these things for granted, too. Like, I know that I get to work from home, and so do all of my people. Okay, that's great. How often do we remind each other of that? Rarely. Yeah. You know, I take it for granted, so I know they probably do, too. In fact, they, they might take it for granted less than me, but I don't know, you know, because we don't talk about it. You know what I mean?

Everybody values the perks differently.

Correct.

And.

Exactly. But, but taking a minute and, you know, letting your business. Tuning your business brain to be aware of all of those perks. Make a list. Now, don't shove that list down the throats of your current employees. You might present that list to prospective employees. Appropriate way to show them, you know, the benefits of here. Like, yeah, maybe you could make a little bit more money if you worked for a different company. But here are the things you get to do here and let people decide what's valuable to them. And you know, it's not always just money. Of course money's going to be involved. It's fine, you're competitive, right. But you know, also looking at that list and just then once you've created the list, it's a two step process. Now tune your business brain to start finding opportunities to remind everyone, yourself included, about the perks on the list. Because you know, it's, it is good to acknowledge the things that are good in your life and, and be thankful for them. Right. And so if you can do that sincerely, like if I were to sit down with my staff and say, gosh, you know, I was, and, and like I probably will after doing this episode because now I'm thinking about it like, how lucky am I that I get to work from home every day? You know, I have a great setup. I'm able to be home when I want to be home. I'm able to be at the office. But I, you know, I, I'm able to, to do that without having to commute. And you know, these are wonderful things and like I'm really thankful for it, but I take it for granted.

And if you present them is find.

A way to present that sincerely, I think makes a huge difference. Right?

I love the way we've, we've talked about this before, but like Gary Von Meer from Tech Defenders, that has happened. You know, if you look at their LinkedIn company page, it's constantly talking about, you know, employees and perks and parties and celebrations of somebody that achieves some new things. So you pick it up. They don't have to tell you very much of how they treat their employees. And actually I'd love to talk more about this concept of being in service to your employees. All right.

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Yeah, what I mean, you know, we're, we're talking about being authentic and you know, benefits and things. But one of the best ways I found to get employees and change their frame of what the boss is and the, you know, management this and kind of shift how that relationship work is to be of service to them and doing things like cooking them lunch Barbie, you know, like we used to do this Friday barbecue or I would cook for everybody, you know, almost every week or one I just saw on Twitter was guy mentioned, you know, hey, you need to empty the trash as a small business owner because it's important that everybody chips in and that's a very powerful message. And I responded, I said, yeah, actually going around to your employees areas and emptying trash is incredible. And even if you have janitorial services, you know, there, you know, if you look back, rulers and, you know, monarchies and things, the whole concept was to be in service to the people. You got elevated to a certain level, you got certain Perth works, but you're supposed to be working in the best interest of, you know, quote your subjects. But if you, if you just like.

Our politicians do here in the United States.

Wrong show. But you're right, you're right.

I think that's the first time I've brought politics up. It's gonna be the last. Don't, don't worry. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But if you take that analogy as a business owner and think, okay, I really want to get these employees on and on our side that we want to be team members and we want to achieve great things together. Especially if you're a small business, maybe you don't have big budgets or stock options to give to them and you know, this kind of stuff. Those simple steps of being of service to your employees are powerful. Feeding them, especially with food, because that gets everybody relaxed. You get to sit around and then you're serving them and then you're cleaning up. You know, everybody usually, you know, obviously chips in to help and stuff, but when they see you, they're doing that work to benefit them. It's a powerful message that you, you can't tell people that you just have to do it.

No, it's, it's. The action speaks louder than words in this scenario is absolutely truth. Yeah, I, and we've, we've talked about this in the past, but this concept, the way it, it crystallized in my head, it was, I think a couple of years ago that, you know, I wound up saying to a friend, being an entrepreneur is a blue collar job.

And yeah, no matter what you do.

No matter what you do, right. Because first of all, you have to be willing to do those things that other people would perceive as below your station. I don't want to say that they are below your station because like you said, somebody's going to take out the trash. It's no big deal if it's you, you know, like, and if you're, if you're an entrepreneur, I'm not saying anything you haven't already internalized. You may have, you may not have like thought about this, but you probably also don't hesitate to empty the trash or clean the toilets. Or the other things that just need to get done. At some point you might hire somebody to do that stuff so that you can focus on other things. But you're not hiring them to do it because you're, it's below you. You're hiring them to do it.

Right.

Because it's more efficient that way. Right. You know, and because your time is better spent doing other things in service of the business. But if somebody, if the toilet needs to get entered, if somebody needs to run the deposit to the bank, if somebody needs to pick up the phone, you know, if, if somebody else doesn't do it, it's you.

And yeah.

And the people who fail, one group, there's some people I've failed at business and I know this lesson. But you know, a lot of the failure I see of first time entrepreneurs are folks who don't get this yet. I don't want to say they don't get it because yet I think is the important phrase. You can, you can learn this trait and this behavior, but you, you need to go and, and you know, it's the folks who are resistant to doing the grunt work and not just the emptying the trash, but the, you know, the data entry part, the boring part of the work that needs to be done. Somebody's got to do it. And if you're the only person in your business, it's you, you know.

Yeah. And I think you can do it in such a way to be really be useful. When you see someone struggling with something, it's the same thing I always told my kids, hey, you know, these four power, powerful words, how can I help? And they, your employees, especially new employees, they, they don't expect the owner of the business or the boss, quote, you know, to come over and say, hey, how can I help? How can I, you know, and I used to often do it by ensuring my employees had the right tools.

Yeah.

And you know, if I noticed that they were struggling or their, you know, the computer they were using was having problems and I, you know, I'd just be like, hey, you know, what do you need to, to make your job more enjoyable, more effective, more, you know, productive? Because it's, it's going to be better for me as well. But you know, taking the time to, to have that kind of relationship when, you know, and it starts small, I go back to the food thing. You just can't beat it. You know, whether, if you don't cook, I don't figure something out.

Right.

You know, bring, go bring food for everybody and then clear the table or whatever, but that it's a powerful thing that you don't read it in about it much in business books and.

No, you don't.

You gotta have some humility, be humble.

But that's it. Yeah, it's really. This is a lesson in humility. It is. Is really where it comes from. Yeah. Yeah.

It's also learning to ramp your ego up and down. You know, ego's really powerful as a tool.

Ego is powerful. Correct. But it doesn't mean you always swing the hammer, right?

No.

You don't always use your ego. Right? Yes.

And. And when you ramp your ego up, it may be in your head that it needs to live the most as you're telling yourself, I'm, I'm, you know, going to power through this. I'm the good at this. But when you ramp it down and, and, you know, give out that humility and help being helpful and all that stuff, you, you really, it builds tremendous loyalty on with your team. I had one guy when, you know, I lost control of. Of one business I had at one time, and it's a long story, but one of my employees, this guy had been with me for, you know, seven or eight years, and he came into my office one day and said, hey, you know what? If, if this all goes away, I'll come work for you in your garage for free until we get back on our feet. And I'm thinking, this is a guy that I've barbecued before, that I've barbecued for many times, and, and helped him out and made sure his daughter had a laptop, you know, because he couldn't. On and on and on. But that, that connection with your employees, man, that's huge. It's powerful and it transcends even your business because I did lose that company. And he did. This person did come work for me literally the day after to start a new business. And it's critically important. And it wasn't just him, it was a few other folks. So, you know, be that way. Be of service to your employees and share how you've done it with us. Feedbackusinessbrain Show Help tune our business brain and share your stories and you could win a MacBook Air.

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