How To Be A More Successful Business Owner - FDDTC #5

Hey there. Welcome to another episode of the From Delivery Driver to CEO podcast. This is your host, Devin Zander. And these are tales, methods and strategies that took me from a high school dropout in Jimmy John's Delivery Driver to being the CEO of an eight figure software company with over 50,000 customers around the world. So if you're ready to improve your marketing and skyrocket your business, you've come to the right place. Now let's hop in to today's episode. What's up guys? This is Devin Zander here. Welcome to episode number five of the From Delivery Driver to CEO podcast. And today we're going to talk about three different kinds of business owners that I deal with daily. This is really important because there are three different kinds of business owners out there and in my opinion, two of them are destined to fail, if not right away, at least in the long run. They are going to fall flat on their face while the third type is going to absolutely kill it, demolish, overcome things like recessions, the current situation that's going on, and continue to grow year over year and their business. And just so you know, and just to be clear, a lot of what I'm discussing today comes from the book Straight Line Leadership. This is a huge recommendation of mine, really love it, recommend anybody to check it out. It's quite a quick read. You could probably get through it in an hour and a half. So really easy read. Anyways, so let's get to these three kinds of business owners. So business owner number one. I'm going to go through all of them really quickly by the way, then we'll take a more in depth look at each kind of business owner. Business owner number one is a circular business owner. Now these are people who are running in circles or on a hamster wheel, something like that, and they never implement. So when we deal with newer business owners, they're usually circular. So I would say, you know, at our software company we deal with a lot of newer business owners. I would say 95% of those new business owners that come in our doors, figuratively, since it is the Internet. Right. They are circular business owners running in circles. Now I'll get to more than that on a second. Now number two is the straight line business owners. These people know what they need to do and then they just do it. It gets them from point A to point B. These are straight line business owners. So instead of traveling in a circle, they just go in a straight line from point A to point B. They get shit done. Now these are the successful People, the third type. These are zigzag business owners. So these are people who zigzag back and forth from the circle and the straight line. So they're looking for new information or something like that. Then they get like a boom, aha, I know what to do from that information, right? And they start to implement it. And then after they get some implementation, they just revert back to that circle. Okay, I need more information before I can continue to implement. And if any of that's confusing, don't worry, we're gonna go through all of them one by one right now. So first is the circular business owner. So these people are just constantly repeating the same mistakes over and over again and they hardly ever accomplish anything. Trust me, you do not want to be a circular business owner. These are the people that never find any kind of success in their business because they're never actually implementing anything. And the reason why is because they think that success is about having the right information, okay? And while it's true that information is helpful, you don't need to read a thousand books, okay? You can probably learn everything you need to know from one course, from one or two or even three or four books, you know? Now it's totally okay to read if you enjoy it and you do it for fun. But if you're seeking knowledge because you think that's what it takes, if you think it takes the right information to succeed, all that's going to do is cause you to constantly seek more information, which is going to cause you to fail because all you do is seek information. And that's funny, because the reason that you fail is because you think that information will help you. So what you think is going to cause you to succeed is actually going to be your doom or your demise, right? So what you're doing or what circular business owners do is they constantly tell themselves like, I don't know what to do or how to continue, even though I just get all this information, it's like, man, but how do I implement what I just learned, right? Instead of actually just going out there and doing it, which is what they should do, they think they need some magical golden nugget or something like that to help them implement what they even learn. So the big thing with these circular business owners is they don't implement what they know. And these people probably know a ton. I bet there's a lot of people out there who, who know a lot more than I do, but they don't have an eight figure company. They're not generating tons of Customers because they're never actually implementing the information they learn. And I like to say that knowledge without implementation is just information, okay? Because you can't do anything with it. It's not going to make you any money. It's just info that maybe, hey, if you're on a game show or something, it would be really useful. But if you're not implementing it, it's literally a waste of mind space, okay? There's no point in having that information if you're not doing anything with it. Unless maybe you want to be on Jeopardy. One day or something like that. Who Wants to be a Millionaire? And you think, hey, maybe I'll hit it big that way. But other than that, it's really just for vanity to, you know, inflate your ego or maybe know a lot. Right? There's nothing wrong with having knowledge, but if you're not using it or implementing it in some way, I mean, that's all it is. It's just stuff saved away for, you know, whatever it is you might use one day. And I like to kind of compare these business owners to a dog chasing their tail. The dog thinks that he's getting a lot done. He's like, yeah, I'm going to get that tail. Yeah, I'm getting closer. Yeah, I'm getting closer. But at the end of the day, he accomplished nothing. And he was very fatigued from doing it. And that's what you're doing. You're constantly chasing new information. You're not actually accomplishing anything because you're never implementing it. And by the end, you're mentally fatigued and extremely drained. So that's the circular business owner. That's the worst. You do not ever want to be a circular business owner. Next is the straight line business owner. Now these people, this one I don't even have to go super in depth on. Let me tell you, this is where you want to be. And to get here, you kind of just have to pay attention to what I'm saying and realize like. Or ask yourself, am I being a straight line business owner or am I being a circular business owner? You need to make a distinction. You need to set a line and you need to make sure you're on one side of it, right? So a straight line business owner literally takes the information and they implement it. They understand that the quickest way to success is a straight line. To get from point A to point B, you just implement what you know. You do not need to read a million books. You don't need to do a ton of different things. And while I think it's great to have information, especially the right information, it's very helpful, but you need to implement it. So the quickest way to success is radical or tons of implementation and just getting shit done. And if you are going to use content or take courses or something like that, I'd recommend that you go with a coach or an author or a mentor or something like that that puts their content in such a way that you implement it as you go. So you're constantly working, implementing, and getting to point to B. All right, that's all straight line business owners do is they walk in a straight line, they implement. They're not constantly getting off track, looking for new information. Right? Because if they try to do something else, what happens? That's a left or right turn. Left or right is not straight. So they stay on track. They do what will help them get to point B, which is clearly defined, and they find success. Now, something that's very useful and getting from point A to point B quickly is having clear set goals or objectives and never straying away from them. And something that a lot of big businesses, I think intel came up with this. Andy Grove, the best manager of all time, over intel, came up with okrs. That's a totally different subject for another podcast episode, but I recommend Googling it. It's a very good way to set goals that will allow you to get so much done and never get distracted. So if I had to say there was one thing that straight line business owners do that separate them from the rest of the pack and get them these outstanding results, I remember, these are the guys who will succeed. Not just now, not just during recessions, not during all the issues that we have going on in the world, but always, okay, these guys kick ass, take names, whatever it is, they're all out of bubble gum. Whatever Duke Nukem said back in. You know, that was before I was even born, I think. No, no, I was alive. Anyways, it doesn't matter. Their superpower is the ability to define where they want to go first. Okay, you start with point B, define where you want to go, and then you do the work it takes to get there without ever getting distracted. All right, so straight line, that's where you want to be. Now, we saved zigzag for last because zigzag, even though this is somewhere else, you don't want to be. Keep in mind, you don't want to be zigzag, you want to be a straight line business owner. But we saved zigzag for last. Because it's actually a mixture of the circular business owner and the straight line business owner. So while the circular business owner is constantly running in a circle, stuck on a hamster wheel, trying to get new information while never implementing any of it, the zigzag business owner is a little different because he will take that information and he will get inspired, and for a second, he'll have a little outburst of success. Right? So think of January 1st. It's a new Year's resolution. You get inspired, and you're in the gym for three weeks, and then you give up and you stop going, boom, you're done. Right. That's kind of like what this exact business owner does. They read a book, they get really inspired by what's in that book. They go out and implement it. Yes. They start seeing results, and then they just stop. And I've met so many people like this, and I don't understand. Why would you ever stop something that's working? You need to 10x it not to, you know, take away from Grant Cardone or his 10x stuff, but 10x keep going in, you know, do it, do it, do it. You find success. Don't give up on it. And these are the people who get, like, shiny object syndrome. And it's not the same as a circular business owner because they're just stuck in a circle. Okay. I wouldn't even say they have shiny object syndrome. They have more like an addiction to knowledge and thinking that knowledge will get them success, while this form of shiny object syndrome is just constant distraction, thinking that the grass is greener on the other side. They find something that works, but then they see an ad, and it's like, ooh, maybe that'll work. Or they see a book at a bookshelf or on Amazon or something like that. Oh, maybe this will be even better than what I'm doing. And then they ditch what they're doing, and then, you know, they were on an upward trajectory, and then they zag back down. Zig up. Yes. This is working. We're making money. Zag back down. Okay. And then they go back into content consumption mode for a little while. Oh, this might work. It goes up, and then they go back down. Right. And it's just perpetually like that. So I think a big takeaway from this is make sure that you are just doubling down on something. Okay. You need to understand that more knowledge isn't necessarily the answer. Now, don't get me wrong. I think it's smart to learn. It's smart to study and do things like that. But if you have something or you have a plan and you're working on something, stick with it. Don't constantly get distracted. Don't let shiny objects distract you. Be that straight line business owner. Tell yourself what point B is. Define your point B right? And then do whatever it takes to get from point A to point B in a straight line without getting distracted. And if you can do this constantly, I'm very confident you will find success. Okay? And like I said, go check out okrs. Radical Focus is a great book for introductions into okrs. That's the easiest way to set goals and really adhere to them and stick to them. And if you want to learn more about straight line business owners, I also recommend Straight Line Coaching. This was an absolutely awesome book and I learned a lot from it. So guys, this is Devin Zander. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you so much for joining us on this episode of From Delivery Driver to CEO Podcast. And I will talk to you guys later. Take it easy, everyone.