#039: Following the Flow: Why Your Biggest Opportunity Could Be Right Under Your Nose

Welcome to the High Income Business Writing Podcast, helping you propel your writing business to a whole new level. And now, here's your host, Ed Gandia.

Well, hello everyone and thank you so much for joining me for episode 39 of the High Income Business Writing Podcast. My name is Ed Gandia and this is the podcast for business writers and copywriters who want to take their writing businesses to the six figure level or the part time equivalent. As a reminder, you can find detailed show notes of this episode by going to b2b launcher.com Episode 39 I don't eat a lot of fast food and actually I don't eat, I rarely eat fast food. But there's a quote unquote fast food restaurant that I absolutely love. And I don't really consider them fast food, but I guess it's in that category. And the restaurant is called Chipotle. Those of you in the US Are probably familiar with it. It's a burrito and kind of a Southwestern Tex Mex restaurant. And I believe they're actually in outside of the US by now. They have over 500 stores and I think they're absolutely fantastic. I mean, I think in that catego nobody even comes close to the quality of the food, the freshness, the ingredients that they use are just absolutely delicious. It's fantastic. Excellent service. The place is always packed and with good reason. And I don't remember how it happened, but a friend of mine and I were talking recently about that chain and she asked me if I, because she absolutely loves them as well. And she asked me if I knew the story behind the restaurant, behind the success. And I honestly didn't know. And I've been meaning to look this up because, you know, you see these restaurants every once in a while that are wildly successful, but you know, it's a fad. I mean, you know, even if they're great, you know, people are eventually going to get tired of the food and they're going to go to the newest, the latest and greatest thing. But my goodness, I've been going to Chipotle for the last, I don't know, six, seven years at least. And the crowds are still there. In fact, it's so bad it's not unusual for the line to go outside the door on any given day during lunch or dinner. And it's to the point the only way I order is through my iPhone. They have an iPhone app. You can do it online as well. Place your order and you can go right to the front, to the register and pick it up right There. That is the only way I ever eat a Chipotle. There's no way I'll stand in line. So anyway, my friend started sharing the story with me about how it was founded and a little bit about the founder. And all she had to do was give me the basic element to that story. And I was absolutely hooked because I saw the immediate tie in to those of us in the freelance writing community. Now, before I tell you more about the story and why it's so relevant to us freelance writers, I need to first dispel a very common myth in the world of freelancing. And that's the fact that you have to have a detailed business plan in order to launch a successful freelance business or in order to take your existing business to the next level. And, you know, it's a myth, but it's. It's really only partially true. I have to admit that it does help, and I do recommend putting together a basic business plan together before you either launch your business or before you make some drastic changes, because I think that kind of exercise really forces you to think and it can be a very encouraging exercise. You know, you start getting excited about different possibilities. It starts taking you down different path than you would have gone had you just put all this in your head, right? If you kept it in your head, you wouldn't have really thought about all the different possibilities and all the details and all the different options. But the problem is that many times being very methodical about the planning itself can lead to myopic thinking. And I'll just give you a quick example here. And it's really my story. Those of you who are familiar with how I started out, I started out freelancing as a direct response copywriter for business to business companies. So my thinking was, well, I came from this world where I had to produce my own sales and marketing materials. This is most really needed help where they really needed an expert, someone to really help them out. I found that the real need was in content development. They, you know, they would say things like, ed, that's great, but really what I need help with right now is someone to write this white paper or someone to, you know, write this series of articles, or someone edit these very technical articles that are one of our developers created and turn it into something that a business audience can understand. It was those kinds of requests. Now, I could have very easily said, well, that's not what I do. I can refer you to somebody else or I'm sorry, you know, I can't do that. This is, this Is I do this other thing. That's my specialty, this other thing. But I went ahead and took it on. And mostly I don't want to give myself too much credit. Mostly out of necessity, I wanted to. I had adopted this thinking it was went like this. Look, I almost don't care where it comes from or what it is. I need cash so I can beef up my savings so I could quit my day job. And so I would take it. And before I knew it, more than 90% of my income, my freelance income was coming from this type of work. So, anyway, I'll continue that story later. I'll tell you more about that. But let me get back to Chipotle and the story of Chipotle. Well, it turns out, as my friend was telling me, that the founder, his name is Steve Ells, never meant to create a successful restaurant chain. In fact, he never meant to open more than one restaurant. And even better, he never meant to do this for very long. He never meant to operate Chipotle for very long. What did he really want? What he really wanted was capital to fund his big vision, which was to open up a fine restaurant, fine dining restaurant in San Francisco. And rather than borrowing from a bank or rather than raising venture capital, he had this wild idea that maybe he can open a small burrito shop, a small burrito restaurant, and after a couple years of that, generate enough capital to fund that fancy restaurant dream. Okay? So that was his plan. Now, guess what? What ended up happening is really history. Chipotle ended up becoming the real success, right? So in pursuit of what he really wanted, he created a huge success through the vehicle that he thought would help take him to this other thing. So what do I love about this story? Well, that's what I want to spend the rest of our time together discussing. I love the fact that ideas, plans, you know, methods, it's just this whole scheme that we create, right? That's important. But just as important is the need to follow the flow. That's what I call it. Follow the flow. And by that I mean to be open to possibilities, to be open to all the twists and turns that come when you embark on something like this, to be open to all the different variations of our dream. Because too often the best outcome for us lies hidden in a sea of possibilities. So again, you may set out to become a business to business writer, or a ghostwriter for CEOs or a web copywriter for small businesses, but somewhere along the way, new opportunities might come your way. And if you don't pay attention you might miss out on possibly the biggest opportunity of your career. So here's what I'd like to do. I think it'd be fun to do something different with a show. And what I'd like to do is I'd like to play the audio of the video that Chipotle has on their website. And actually, I'm playing it from YouTube. And this is a video where Steve Ells, the founder of Chipotle, talks about his story and how the restaurant got started and how this idea came about. And what I've done is I've included the video on the show notes page if you'd like to watch that. And I encourage you to watch it because you'll be able to see some things that I'll be describing that I. You know, it's just too hard to communicate in audio. But, you know, it's just. It's interesting. You'll be able to see the inside of the restaurant. So if you've never been to a Chipotle, if you live outside of North America, they don't have one in your town. You'll be able to see what he's done. And what I'll do is I'll basically run through the video and then pause the video at key points in the story in order to bring up a lesson that I think it's worth noting. Because, honestly, there are many great lessons in this short video. So I'm not going to stop it more than, let's say, five or six times, but where I think there's a really big lesson on the topic that we're covering today. You know, this follow the flow idea. Then I'm going to pause it, I'm going to talk a little bit about it, and then we'll continue and we'll run through that whole video. So let's try this. And again, this is the first time I do this, so hopefully it'll run fairly smoothly. But just bear with me. I think it'll be fun.

When I graduated from college, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, but cooking and restaurants had always been a passion of mine. And so I decided I would enroll in the Culinary Institute of America with the notion of becoming a chef. And when I graduated, I went out to San Francisco and worked at one of my favorite restaurants at the time, which was Starr's Restaurant. And that's where I think I really started to learn how to cook and taste critically delicious. I started to have thoughts about opening my own restaurant, but I knew I needed to have some way to fund that restaurant. And that's where the idea for Chipotle came in.

Okay, so let me pause right there. A few important points here. Notice that this guy had a big vision, a big dream. Everyone knows that opening up a fine restaurant anywhere, but especially a city like San Francisco, is no easy task. The competition is fierce. The amount of capital required is incredible, and the failure rate is extremely high. So, you know, it's important. Let's just take this back to freelancing, really, any business, it's important not to have this conversation with herself that says, oh, that's never going to happen. I mean, what am I thinking, right? I mean, there's a side of us that always wants to ask, that always wants to say that. And Steve could have given up on this idea very early in the process. He could have pursued traditional funding avenues that would have put his success in his creative freedom and jeopardy. But what I admire about what he did here is he asked himself, how can I make this happen? How can I raise this capital other than via a, B or C? And we're going to talk more about how later. But that's the first key point. I think most of us sell ourselves and our dreams. We sell our dreams short because we fail to ask ourselves these how questions. How can I launch my freelance business? Okay, I have all these challenges, all these obstacles in my way, but how can I do it? You know, how can I get this result? How can I get to the first step? Forget about the whole launch or taking it to the next level or changing my model completely, you know, how can I get to step A? How can I bring on another large client? You know, how can I bring on three large clients and fire all my little ones? How can I make these dramatic changes? And sometimes, you know, it pays to start big with that big question, right? Big shift. But then that becomes a little too scary. Okay, great. Well, that's fine. Let me take it a couple steps back. How can I take the first step, you know, in that direction? I want to take more time off. You know, I want to take summers off to be with my kids. Well, you know what? How can I start taking Fridays off? You know, how can I take six amazing trips this year, you know, instead of the one that I take? And sometimes I don't take any. So instead of saying or thinking whether or not this could happen, the big lesson here, I think, is, how can I do this? Forget about whether or not it's possible. You know, let's just brainstorm or brainstorm with yourself. How Can I make this happen? How can I get to step a smoky bacon oregano.

Carnitas look fantastic, and they're one of my favorites. Chili corn salsa and a little sprinkle of cheese. So the inspiration for Chipotle came from the little taquerias that I used to go to in the Mission in San Francisco. I remember I was sitting in a restaurant and I was enjoying a burrito. And what fascinated me about these burritos was that they were made in this giant tortilla. And then everything was on the inside. The rice, the beans, the meats, the salsas, then wrapped in foil. And I had never seen anything like that before. So the idea was that I could use these authentic ingredients, but then put my own twist on them.

So I love what he did here. He took a concept that was proven and in many neighborhoods in America, old hat, and he put his own unique twist on it. I find that there's so much opportunity out there for differentiation and for creative service offerings in the freelance world alone. I mean, just listen to some of the recent episodes on the show where writers have gone into little niches, little markets, assignment specialties, and even undeserved communities and made out great because they kind of put their own twist on this old idea or on the way that it's always been done, or the way that they deliver the product or the way they talk about it to that specific audience. And I'll include in the show notes some of these episodes, but, you know, a few that come to mind are a recent one with Susan Anderson on creating lead magnet books for clients, the one with Chandra Russell on writing for small local businesses, the one with Michael Katz on writing and producing newsletters for professional service firms and for solo professionals, and the one with Victoria epri on writing LinkedIn profiles for executives. And there's many, many more, and I encourage you to check them out. But that's one reason why I brought these folks to the show is because they really did a good job of putting their own uniqueness and their own unique twist on something that may have been common and maybe not very successful the way that it has been traditionally presented. All right, let's continue.

And I was just noticing the people going through the line and really feeling how small the space was and that there were only a few people behind the counter. And this economic model that was happening sort of occurred to me, which is very strange for me, because I never took business classes in school. I studied art history, and I never really thought about the economics of a restaurant, only the food and the experience. And so, with a modest loan from my parents, I moved back to Colorado and started the First Chipotle in 93. When I told you, my friends and family, that I was leaving STARS to go open a burrito shop in Colorado, they thought I was crazy. But I had a very strong vision for the way Chipotle was going to look and taste and feel. And I knew it wasn't going to be a typical fast food restaurant. It was going to incorporate all the things that I had learned while at the Culinary Institute and while at Stars and really elevate typical fast food.

I love this next idea, which in my mind, this is about developing and maintaining a strong, unshakable vision. So notice what the reaction was of those who knew him, those who cared about him, and notice his reaction. I mean, he. This guy could have easily given up at this point. He could have been discouraged. Here's my take on all this, right? If you don't have. If people don't doubt you and your decision to launch your business or to make serious changes in your business model, that alone should make you wonder if your idea really has potential. Maybe it's a little too safe. Now, I'm not saying that you shouldn't sometimes listen to others. There is sometimes, you know, your idea may just not have the legs that it needs, or maybe it's not fully cooked, fully baked. Sometimes this advice is good advice. What I do see, though, is that many times we assume that the whole idea needs to be scrapped. And many times what this advice really tells us is that it might need to be refined or modified a bit. But I'm starting to adopt this philosophy that if no one's really doubting it, if everyone's extremely encouraging, not a word of advice or questions about how you're going about it, then maybe it's a little too safe. So this guy, you know, this is a bold move. And I can only imagine what it must have felt like to go from, you know, a Culinary Institute of America graduate working at a very prestigious restaurant to now tell everyone, you know, that, yeah, I'm going to quit all that to open a burrito shop. That's a pretty dramatic difference and change. All right, let's continue.

I remember looking at all the different real estate options back in 1992, and I came across this old Dolly Madison ice cream shop, I think 850 square feet on a corner near the University of Denver campus. And it wasn't a high traffic area. And I know that a couple of other high Profile restaurant chains had looked at it and passed it by, but it was affordable to me and I could just sort of envision the way Chipotle would look in that space. And so I jumped in there with a contractor and we transformed it. I remember going to the hardware store and buying the plywood and the barn metal and the conduit to make those utilitarian light fixtures. You know, we didn't have much money and so we had to make these very simple parts from the hardware store work to create the design, to create the architecture.

So I love that Steve had to work with the limited funds that he had available. I mean, he had to be smart about the location of the restaurant. He had to make sure that every penny counted. And he had to be very strategic about how he designed the restaurant, how he decorated the restaurant, how it was set up in really lack of funds, I mean, forced him to go with a bare bones, industrial look. And so this is where I would encourage you to watch the video because you'll see what these restaurants look like. And the cool thing is that even with that very limited budget, he was able to make these restaurants look really, really good. It was different, it was a new look. And in fact, it was so effective that that same look is still in place today at all of the restaurants. This industrial, bare bones look, it worked and it was different. And it helped establish an image and corresponded with a brand identity he created. Everything was aligned and worked great. But you know, the point here is that I see too many freelancers put their plans and dreams on hold because things aren't perfect. They don't have all the resources they feel they need to make their new website the way they want it to look, or the way they want it to work. Or their prospecting effort isn't complete enough. Maybe it's missing some pieces, or they really want to go and create this amazing prospecting campaign, but their list is not big enough yet. So they're holding off until they continue to build that list instead of just starting with what they got. You know, I think those are big mistakes. Those of you who've been following me for a while know that I'm a huge proponent of the ready, fire, aim idea. I think if you wait too long aiming before you fire, you're going to miss out on a lot of opportunities. And today really is all about taking action. You need enough information, enough resources to take good enough action. At that point, you have to act. Only when you act will you know what needs to be adjusted. And I'll Tell you, you know what way too much capital and cash flow can do to a business, especially a startup? It can make the founder stupid. It's one of the worst things that could happen to a startup, to a freelancer. I see freelancers who come into this with a lot of money and they buy everything they can get their hands on. They spend ridiculous amounts of money setting up their business and their website and planning and strategizing. And you know what? Those are the ones that end up not working out. Something about having to work with limited resources and again, being resourceful. Man, if you walk away with anything here other than the idea of following the flow, I hope it's this. Learn how to become resourceful, work with what you got, and keep working your way up that ladder. All right, let's continue with the video.

I could set it up and let it run. And then I was gonna move on to my real dream, which was opening a whole scale restaurant. But Chipotle was wildly successful and I thought, well, let me open one more. And so I opened another in Denver about a year and a half after the first one opened, and it was even busier. It got even more attention and people love the food. I was reading an article in Ed Baer's the Art of Eating some years ago about the independent family farms up in Iowa who were part of the Niman Ranch Pork Company. So I went up to Iowa and went around with Bill Nyman and took a look at a bunch of different farms and spent time understanding how pigs should be raised. And it was really eye opening. What I learned was that the vast majority of the pork in the United States is raised in confinement. And I knew I didn't want that kind of suffering to be part of our success. People have accused me of being insular and not really paying attention to the world of fast food. And to be honest with you, I don't really pay attention to it. And sort of 18 years later, here I am continuing to open Chipotle's and. And it's as rewarding as ever. And we have a team now of 26,000 energized, passionate people that are really improving Chipotle in every aspect, every single day. And I never thought that you could just take this very simple model and continue to make it better.

So the bottom line, folks, is what started out as a vehicle to get to where he really wanted to go ended up becoming his main thing. I mean, he was smart enough and open minded enough to see that this was it, this is what he really wanted. That he was creating his vision and this was it. And he was smart enough to accept this and accept this huge blessing for what it was. So, you know, what I urge you to do is pay attention to your goals and your intentions and ask yourself, what do you really want? I mean, for me, when I was starting out, I just wanted to work from home, doing work. I loved setting my own schedule and not having the pressures and ugliness and the travel of a high pressure corporate sales environment. Now did it really matter how this happened? Did it really matter? You know, all the little details, were those that important? Does it matter that what I'm doing today doesn't exactly match my original image or vision? No, no. I mean, today, you know, I actually have exactly what I wanted. And I'm telling you this, I may not have defined this right way back then when I started thinking about becoming self employed, but looking back, I realized that these are the things that I wanted. I wanted this freedom, flexibility, I wanted to be at home, I didn't want to travel, I was tired of sales quotas. And yeah, I had to say, well, I think the way to do it is via this. And that's what I pursued. But did it matter that that kind of evolved over time and it morphed into something different as long as I still have what was important and what is important to me today? No, it doesn't matter. I mean, today I spend most of my time coaching and training other freelancers. And you know, was that part of my original vision here again? No. I mean I started this business as a, as a side project. International Freelancers Academy, the high income business writing podcast. These are things that started, not so much the podcast because that evolved from a different vision, but these were side projects that just kept growing and evolving. And eventually I took notice. I realized, you know what, I'm really enjoying this. This is fun for me. I'm good at it. People are benefiting from my work, my ideas, my strategies, my advice. And you know, I could have ignored that, but I paid attention to it. I don't do a lot of things right all the time, but I think this is one that I did well and I'm glad I, you know, and I look at many of my colleagues and it's been the same thing. The really successful people have paid attention to what's working and not working and in are smart enough and open minded enough to make adjustments and to continue to evolve their businesses based on what they value. I think of my good friend Pete Savage. He now runs a boutique Content development company, kind of a mini agency, a boutique mini agency. That's not what he originally set out to do, but his business, his copywriting business evolved into that. My good friend Diana Huff, same thing, she started as a copywriter and her business evolved many different times. She's been through several different iterations of her business, and now she's very, very focused on website overhauls for, for small businesses. You know, someone I met actually last year, he went from freelance writing for a while and he was. He did well, he did well, but he ended up back in the corporate world, but in a totally different area that he wouldn't have known about if he hadn't gone out on his own freelancing. So, you know, don't feel that all this has to be in the freelance realm, in the self employment realm. Sometimes following the flow means, you know, you kind of go in and out of freelancing and traditional employment and that's totally okay. Again, what really matters here is kind of stepping back and asking yourself, what really matters to me? Am I going in the right direction? Does this feel right? So the big lesson, pay attention, right? Pay attention. What are clients and prospects telling you? What are they asking you for? Again, as I mentioned earlier when I was starting out, Ed, that's great that you do lead generation emails and landing pages. That's all great. Listen, what I really need help with right now is this white paper or this case study or this series of articles. We might be able to look at those other things later, but can you help me with this now? Is this something you do? Is this something you're interested in? Okay, pay attention to those things. You know, many times you get several of these and we kind of shun them or we set them aside or we turn them down, thinking, that's not what I do, that's not what I do. But eventually you have to start asking yourself, hmm, I think the market is trying to tell me something. Along with that, take time to step back, you know, take time to think about your business and work on your business and not in your business all the time. So where are you? Where's your business taking you? Where is it going? And then follow the flow. You know, practice the art of being a little bit more flexible. Don't be too rigid. Be okay with the idea of taking some chances and making, trying new things and making adjustments. You know, you don't have to overhaul your business overnight. You can go with a low risk approach and just test things out and see how they go. I'll tell you this one thing though, there's just no honor in sticking to your original plan and not making mid course corrections because you know, that's unacceptable. That's not what I set out to do. You know, I'm thinking of an airplane pilot. There is absolutely no shame in a pilot making adjustments along the way. This pilot has a, you know, an amazing set of controls and systems to help him or her navigate their way to their destination. But let's face it, along the way they have to make dozens and dozens of mid course corrections because there is, there are all these things that, that adjust your course that take you off course, I should say. So you can't just say, well, you know, well, that's not what the plan was. We'll just kind of let the plane take us to where it's going to take us. Now that pilot has to make those adjustments and there's no shame in making those adjustments yourself. No one's going to make fun of you. You're not going to be a failure. All successful businesses have had to make adjustments along the way. Nobody stays still. So folks, I hope you enjoyed this episode. I know it was a little different and I know we took it outside of freelancing, but I think that there's so many lessons to be learned outside of the world of freelancing and sometimes it requires us to look at those things and see the parallels, see how those hidden gems in these stories can help us in our own solo businesses. As a reminder, you can grab the details show notes for this episode@b2b launcher.com Episode 39 video that I shared with you today is also there and you'll find detailed show notes and points that I've made. If you want to reference any of this later, a couple of quick announcements. First of all, I just opened enrollment to my new six figure writer mastermind and this is an exclusive opportunity to collaborate and to share ideas with other successful freelance writers and copywriters who are facing the same issues that you are and are developing and are working on creative solutions around them. Talking about things such as how to scale your business, how to work fewer hours without sacrificing your income, how to bring more stable long term clients into your business, how to manage subcontractors, how to develop smart passive income streams, those sorts of things. So if you're already earning a six figure income, or if you're rapidly approaching that level, or if you're earning the equivalent, the part time equivalent of a six figure income or something close to it, this might be for you. Now this is by application only and you can learn more about it@b2b launcher.com Six Figure Mastermind so the word 6s I X the word figure and the word mastermind all together. No hyphen six figure mastermind if you enjoyed this episode I would be grateful if you shared it it with friends and colleagues. And the easiest way to do that is to go to b2b launcher.com love or just use any of the social media sharing buttons that you'll find on the Show Notes page. And also it would mean a lot to me if you gave the show a quick rating or review on itunes. And the easiest way to do that is just to go to b2b launcher.com iTunes and that will take you to directly to the page on itunes where you can leave your feedback. And I just wanted to give a big thanks to some recent reviewers of the show, including Wendy Slonks YFH1 of course, these are all itunes usernames. David Friels Robinson writes, Hutch is Online, Alan Nett and K. Tevlin. So thanks so much guys for the quick review. The star rating means so much to me. I read all of these and believe me, even us podcasters, even us successful writers, we all need encouragement. This can be a very lonely game. So really appreciate that. Feedback and encouragement really means the world to me. So that brings us to the end of the episode. Again, my name is Ed Gandia. Thanks so much for listening and I hope you have an awesome day.

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