Twisted, Bent & Exhausted Entrepreneur Podcast - LIVE!
Live episode (episode 35) of the Twisted, Bent & Exhausted Entrepreneur podcast featuring hosts Jeff Harrison (Jeff For Local Marketing) and Leslie Spore. They introduce the show, discuss why they went live, and focus on why small businesses stop growing: failure to adopt AI/automation, poor time management (the recommended "time study"), owner-as-bottleneck, missing systems/SOPs, tribal knowledge hoarding, and absent KPIs. Practical tips include doing a day-or-week time study, delegating/automating routine work (tools like Scribe mentioned), building measurable KPIs, and mindset shifts (acting "as if", removing limiting beliefs). Leslie promotes a free five-day challenge (45 minutes/day; three one-on-one slots/week) and both point listeners to podcast channels and Leslie's blog for more resources.
Chapters
Sam.
Hey. Welcome to the Twisted, Bent and Exhausted Entrepreneur Podcast. My name is Jeff Harrison, along with my co host, Leslie Spore. Hey, Leslie. We're doing something quite different today. Tell us about that.
Well, we're trying to stream live. Hopefully it's working. I don't know if it's working, but we are trying to stream this podcast live today as a change, because why? Because Jeff's on vacation. And so he's so dedicated. So, so dedicated that he's trying to do the podcast on our normal recording day, but he does not have fast enough Internet in order to record it and then post it later. Is that all the. Is that what you want me to tell him?
That's pretty darn close. I like that. I'm gonna use that. I'm gonna use that same excuse from now on for everything that I do. Yeah, I can't. I can't record. I need to do it live and then be done. Because the beauty about live streaming is, you know, when we're done, we're done. You know, we turn the camera off, we're done. But the other beautiful thing about this, Leslie, is people come onto the podcast if they have a question or comment, we can address it live, which is going to be a lot of fun.
Okay, that would be fun.
Take a minute. And for those people who maybe have never heard of the Twisted, Bent and Exhausted Entrepreneur podcast, tell us what it's about. And first of all, say, hey, what triggered this to come about? Because we're now, I'm just looking at our Spotify account. We're 34 episodes in. This is 35. What was the. What was the thought behind this? Because this was driven by you.
Yeah, I'm the one that wanted to do this originally.
I was happy staying under a rock.
Well, you know, podcasts are the. The most relevant form of social media as far as communicating information to people, and they like to listen or they like to watch the videos or the. The podcast themselves. And I wanted to do something that would help small business owners. Right. My expertise is small business fundamentals, industry best practices for any kind of small business. Yours is AI creativity. I'm going to call it that. AI Genius. The things that he can create with AI is unbelievable and can totally help your business. So together we. I thought if we put ourselves together between your automation and my.
Brains, we could.
We could create a. A podcast that would really help business owners, particularly small business owners. And we called it Twisted, Bent, and Exhausted. Because small business owners are working in a vacuum. Right? They were always working in a vacuum. And.
We often don't think we need a mentor or a coach to help us, when in fact we all do. Because what happens is we end up twisted, bent and exhausted. We work a phenomenal amount of hours. Everybody said, oh, start your own business. You know, you can do what you want. Well, that's only sort of true. It's true if you create yourself some finance or operational independence, but it's not true if you're out there just feeling your way through the. Through the industry, whatever industry you're in, and trying to create something that is a legacy and is successful and is profitable and rewarding in all those aspects. It can be quite a challenge. And so I know for myself, I get all of those things at any given time. And I know you do, too. You pretend like you don't. You're Mr. Cool, but I know, I've seen you get pissed off sometimes. I know that you get twisted also.
It sometimes happens. You know, it's one of those things that by doing this live, I'm excited about this because one is, I think there's probably a lot of people out there that didn't even know we have a podcast doing this, and we do it live with video and audio. So you can watch us on Spotify or you can watch us on YouTube, your YouTube channel. My YouTube channel, which is either Jeff Harrison or Swing Point Media. And yours is Leslie Spore.
Yeah, and I think it's just Leslie spore on. On YouTube because I have so many other things. There's a lot of content out there that's free to people if they want to search it out. Some of it is older, as far as how I look and what size I am. And the. The quality of the webinars themselves are a little bit dated, but the content is still really, really good. And we used to have a program, remember, called X's and O's. Long time ago. I mean, more than six years long, long time ago. Do you believe that? I only know that because we did it when I lived in my other house. And now I've been in this one six years, so I know at least how long it's been. And we would get together in person and do those X's and O's videos, and they were really fun and there was a lot of great content in those as well.
But so the. The look of it doesn't matter. The content is still relevant and valuable and good today because again, I only do industry best practices, so it doesn't. There's nothing in There, that is date sensitive. The closest we come to date sensitive is AI because it's changing so fast that it's hard to keep up. But we do a pretty good job, I have to say. We do a pretty good job at keeping up with all the new things that are happening.
Yeah, a lot of. Lot of exciting stuff going on, and I think that's what I wanted to really make clear is if you're coming onto this podcast for the first time or this is your 50th time. Well, it could be 50th, but 34th time. It's one of those things that our goal is to. Is to give you valuable information that you can go take action on right now in your business, whether it's, you know, standard operating procedures, it's. It's using AI to, like a voice agent, or it's understanding, you know, why you're getting garbage out of Chat GPT.
Or, you know, exactly, you know, and.
You know, we're not HR people, but there's certainly some HR wounds that we both have that we can share with you. We don't claim to be accountants or attorneys, so make sure when it comes down to that, you want to make sure to check with your professionals, because we're not that. And I don't even play a doctor on tv, so. So I can't help you with medical questions.
But ChatGPT can, though.
Yeah, true, true. Although in the state of Illinois, I think they said, hey, we're gonna block it from it being a therapist, because, you know, therapists can, Can. Can guard you against doing some things that are dangerous. And, you know, one of the things about Chat GPT, if you don't prompt it properly, it can prompt you to do things like, oh, you're doing great, you're wonderful, instead of just being honest. So a lot of times I'll put the in there. Said I need you to be brutally honest and tell me if this. If this idea sucks, tell me so, because I want it to be successful.
Well, it's, you know, we do talk about that a lot, about how important prompts are. I think we just did a recent podcast on prompting.
There's two pieces of. If we're going to talk about AI for a minute, there are two pieces of AI that are extremely important. One is the prompting, of course, and how you ask the questions, but also is your knowledge base. You need to get your knowledge base into these AI programs so that it can help you the most effectively. I did a. I did two. Well, actually, I did like six Newsletters this morning. But two of them were the same newsletter, but one of them was angled for executive errands, and one of them was angled for concierge business solutions. They were both about. And we've had this conversation about how AI makes life easier, but we're still really, really busy. And so. And then for executive errands, of course, it was the things AI can't do for you that human beings can, which I think is important when you're doing a service, taking care of people's homes and things, that there's certain things AI cannot do for you that. That we as human beings can. And then in concierge business solutions, it was, of course, how to use AI for business. And still.
It always comes down for me to working on your business instead of working in it. And so using AI as a tool to accomplish that is a big help. So the fact I could do six newsletters in an hour, right? And one of them took me a while because I didn't tell the AI exactly what I wanted. I. I told it kind of what I wanted, and it kept coming back with the wrong information. I was trying to do a newsletter about gift certificates, and I wanted, you know, the gift service we give out to, especially to realtors, but also to all business owners. And I want to be able to offer them to clients as well for a referral program. And AI didn't get that right away because I didn't express it that way. It was doing all business. I'm like, no, no, no, no. I want to do clients as well. And so we finally got it it. And I got it worked out, and we got it done.
You know, if you. If. If someone is listening this and they say, well, you know, I've had some of those same challenges. One of the things you want to do is, is you want to con. You want to think of it like, hey, this is an incredibly smart child who has no idea what you need from it, but it will do whatever you want it to do, and it'll do it at a high, high degree. But you have to be very specific. The more specific you are, the better your results. So if you're one of those people said, hey, I tried it once and it didn't work for me. It was like garbage. It's that GI Go, garbage in, garbage out. So think about, did I ask the best question? Like, if I asked this question, if somebody asked that question to me and I had no knowledge, no information behind me, would I answer it properly? And then probably the answer would Be no. Right.
Right. So that's what happened. Yeah, yeah, that's what happened. I didn't ask the question clearly enough and usually I do because we work about prompts all the time, you and I. We're always talking about the best way to prompt for stuff. And honestly, you come up with the very best prompts. But I've stolen a lot of them and I use them for my question, so they helps me too.
This, in this case, this morning, I just didn't ask for it properly, but we got there, so it was good. It just took a little longer. We did have a topic for today, or do you want to continue?
No, let's, let's. Let's jump in. I just want to give people an idea, a sense of if they've never seen us or heard us, which is hard to believe. I've been. I was just talking to somebody this morning and they said, well, you've got a lot of videos out there. I said, yeah, on one channel I have over 660 videos because I've been doing wow for about making video content since the very first days of YouTube. And yeah, some of it's pretty ugly, but it. It was what it was. It was the best at that time. But yeah, there's a lot of video content out there. And then on me too, you know, I probably have over a thousand videos, so. And, and Leslie, I know you've got a gazillion out there as well, so, yeah, it's.
I always say I'm like Oprah. You see me big, you see me small, you see me short hair, you see me at long hair, you see me in weird clothes. I mean, you just see, it's, you know, as a female and I don't know if men get this or not, but as a female, I worry about it. But then I watch a ton of video on, you know, on tick tock and YouTube and Instagram and Facebook. I love all the videos. And people don't care. They just. I mean, some of the people that post stuff, I'm like, well, that's not very professional. But then it doesn't matter because nobody cares. They care about the content and what they're learning, right? They're not looking at it for is your hair combed or not. They're looking at it as what you're. What you're communicating. Didn't we talk about that recently? About how important the message is in the videos these days in social media?
100. I was just going to reiterate that it's like yeah, you know, I, I listened to, I drove from California to Arizona and I was just to a podcast and was talking about this one gentleman who is a former NFL player, played one season and then he became a pastor and well, actually he became a financial advisor, did really well and became a pastor. He said, I don't make anything unless I know it's going to impact that person. It's going to be a value because their time is so precious. I never want to waste their time. And I thought about that more and more, Leslie, and I'm like, I want to be that person. So if you tune in into Entrepreneur Podcast, you're going to see some of us, some of the things we do, we're interacting. But the content, the goal is every time I turn on the video or I record something or write an article, it's to say, I want you to get value from this and walk away and say, hey, that piece of information might 3, 4, 5 or 10x my business or reduce my stress by 10, 15x. So that's my thought.
Or give you some balance back. And there's people now that are arguing.
I can't, I can't promise balance.
Well, there's people today that are saying that balance isn't necessary. And I'm like, okay, I know I'm old, but it didn't really change that much, did it? I mean, those of us who start businesses, start them generally. Well, there's a variety of reasons, but primarily we want to be manage our own destiny, right? And we want to be able to have the freedom and the autonomy to.
Do what we want when we want to take a vacation, spend more time with our kids, you know, go outside and sit in the sand or whatever it is here. You don't want to sit in the sand very much. We live in the desert.
So I was thinking beach, but I was that. And we have desert here, and it's not worth sitting in. And so, you know.
What happens is we get trapped in our businesses, right? We start working. And even with AI, it makes it easier. But then instead of filling up that time with balance, we do add more things to do. You know, it's just like all of a sudden I'm like, oh, that was so easy. Let's do this, let's do that. And then it spurs all these ideas. If you're creative, which all small business owners are creative. And so then you're just stuck in this constant hamster wheel of content creation or working on your business and doing mundane or routine tasks or things that should be automated. I mean, they, a lot of people lose sight of how they can get freedom within their own business. Right. And that's one of the topics we were talking about today, why our business has stopped growing. It's been particularly challenging right now because everybody's business is down. I don't know of anybody's business. Well, I'm not going to say down in a bad way, but I've talked to a lot of vendors out here in the desert who say they're off by like 30%, surprisingly. And part of that's economy and part of that's a change of society and part of that's AI. Right. Because. Because if you don't change to keep up with the technology and AI is the biggest disruptor of business since the Internet first started, I think. Right. It's changing everything about how we live, about how we work, about how we do things. Not just business related, even in our personal lives, but it's a big disruptor. And so if you don't keep up with it, you're gonna have a very hard time being successful. We've talked about this a couple of times on this podcast in the past. In fact, episode 24 is particularly important as far as the changes in, in, in social media marketing and how AI affects that. So if you haven't listened to episode 24 for sure, go back and listen to that because this is new. We, it was so important, we moved it up in the list. It, it should have been in October. And we moved it up on the podcast list because it's a really important podcast. So what are we talking about today?
I want to share something for, for, for context.
Okay.
Jeff Bezos, who, you know, started Amazon, I know you, everyone knows that. But when he started, Sears and Roebuck was the giant. And my numbers might not be exact, but at that time Sears and Roebuck did like $14.7 billion and Amazon did like $2 billion. Thirteen years later, Sears is gone and Amazon did $800 billion. And I, and the reason I bring that up is because, because even Jeff Bezos said early on, he said at some point, he said Amazon will file bankruptcy because something will come along and disrupt that. There'll be another Amazon evolution. And I think what happens and you're talking about we need to keep up. It reminds me of the Wayne Gretzky thing. It says don't skate to where the puck is, skate to where it's going. And with that, I think we have to look at every one of our businesses and say, wait a Second, I'm trying to keep up with, yet I'm not getting ahead. I'm only falling behind because I'm chasing today's, if you will, bright shiny object. And it's taken me this ramp up time to figure out how to use TikTok or how to use something out there. And by the time I figure out how to do it, guess what changes? We're on to the next one, right? And so I think, I think we have to thank ourselves of like, do we want to be the first Blockbuster or do we want to be the Netflix? Do we want to be Sears and Roebuck or do we want to be Amazon? And in our lives, in our business, how can we look at it and say, wait a second, I'll give you a concrete example.
On Saturday night, we're having solar installer house. On Saturday. I got up, I'm like, hey, how come our pool pump isn't working? And all of a sudden our switches inside our kitchen were going off and on, like our microwave setting. Every two minutes it would set, set, reset every two minutes and then 20 seconds later it would come back on. Well, I knew it had to be something to do with the solar thing. So all they went through and finally my wife said, because we were leaving on Sunday for vacation for quite some time. And it was like, okay, I don't feel comfortable leaving and knowing my pool is going to turn into a spot swamp. So what I did, my wife, she hands me the phone, she said, call somebody. And so I called the first one and here's the thing, and I want you to be aware of this because this is a blockbuster Netflix moment. So I want you to really pay attention this. She hand it to me and it was the top three results for Google. I called the first one and I called and I got put on hold and I waited about 60 seconds and I, I shut it off and I went to the next one, the next one answered and I had it on speaker and I was talking and my wife says, oh, Jeff, that's AI. I'm like, I don't care. I wanted to be helped. His name was Eugene. And it was fantastic because Eugene walked me all the way through. And in less than an hour we had not just a tech, but the owner of the business who that was his on call. It was over the holiday. He was there and we talked to him about it. He says, yeah, he said, I changed that. Well, here's that defining moment. Are you still going to hope that people will wait on hold?
Yeah.
Or do you need to have immediate response because that's who you're competing against. You either the Blockbuster or your Netflix. And so to me, that was like this, this full circle moment because I just work at a company on Friday that we're installing AI voice agents to handle their incoming calls and also their lead generation. Not the generation, but actually the calls coming in for that. Because that's usually not the problem. The problem that most businesses have is, is they have no follow up system for leads. It's not that they don't have enough because the average business owner takes 42 hours to get back to a lead. Oh, and I wouldn't wait 60 seconds. So that's a Blockbuster moment.
Well, and it's, it's why Uber successful, right? Uber taxis did the same thing Uber does, but what's different? What's different between them that made Uber pretty much run the taxi industry to into the ground. And it's that it's convenient and it's fast. You can schedule it online, you can schedule the Uber pickup online, you can pay online, and you can do a, a testimonial online or give them their stars. And so it's so fast you don't have, you just get out of the car and leave. You don't have to wait while somebody tries to run your credit card or, or do a transaction. It's just so fast. So everything is about convenience and speed these days. So no matter what kind of business you're in, if you haven't automated a large portion of your business or any routine tasks or repetitive tasks and eliminated the waste associated with those, you're going to be way far behind. And it is one of the reasons why businesses have stopped growing is because there's so much change going on right now and people are trying to catch up and they don't know what they don't know. We say that all the time. They don't know what they don't know. So, you know, that's one of the purposes of our podcast is to help keep them up to date on what's happening and how they can get around these things or utilize these things or leverage the technology to help them. Right. And so yeah, that's, it's crazy what's going on right now, how fast things are changing. I've seen so many changes in my lifetime and you and I have been friends for 15 years at least, right? And we've been doing videos together since the very beginning. I can remember you trying to video a demo of my software back in the day and and now it. Not only do you not need to do that, I can do my own demo myself now with technology. Right. So I'm still not anywhere close to understanding it as well as you do. But that's your job. It's not my job. I just, that's my jam. That's your jam. That's your shiny object. Right. I just keep track as best I can. All right, what else do we want to tell anything else about the podcast?
Well, I think that's good, but I just, I want to talk about why my business has stopped growing. And I think we've kind of touched on that. Right then as we said, you know, what we've always done, we'll continue to get what we've always gotten. I think, I think we, as business owners, we need to say, wait a second, I need to really examine that because it's no longer true. As an example, if you're not using social media in the way it's designed to be, be effective in 2025, then that could be something you say I need to, I need to skate to where the puck is going. Because what used to happen, you know, there was a day when you started out and you put a post out there and 95% of your, your followers would see it and interact with it. Now it's 1 to 3%. But here's the, here's the real shift. Here's the real shift and this is why it potentially, I'm going to say reason one is your business is to not going growing. We have changed into, and this is across all platforms, you guys. We have changed into an interest based platform or economy. Meaning if you create content that is of high interest to your audience, the algorithms will help you find your perfect audience and you could go viral. And I'm not saying, I'm not promoting viral, I'm saying, but you could all of a sudden have a something kick off on one. What is no longer working, Leslie, is this. Buy me, buy me, buy me. Here's my sale price. Buy me. Because what happens is you're attracting, and I'm just going to be blunt, honest, you're attracting the bottom feeders that are only looking for a discount. And as I was taught a long time ago, when you work with these people, their squeaky wheel will drive you to crazy and you won't make any money.
Well, and that's.
It'll make you exhausted and twisted.
Well, and I, I've always known that. At least, you know, I feel like I'm ahead of the curve on that because all my newsletters over the years have been. People would say, well, they're more like a blog than a newsletter. I never hard sell. I always put a call to action in there of some sort that relates to whatever the topic is I'm talking about, but it's never a hard sell. And, and you know, and when I teach this stuff, I tell people that when you're going to try to promote your business, you have to find out what's in it for me from the perspective. Clients perspective. Right. So that sounds funny. Perspective, clients perspective. That's a P R O P E R. Anyway, you know me, I get sidetracked real easily. Oh, looks world.
So I think we're just talking about that.
I know, really. So if you. Everybody always says find a problem and fix it. Right. That's what makes a business successful. You're solving an issue for somebody. Well, you also have to be able to present your information in a way that makes people want to work with you. And that can either be.
Explaining what's in it for them to work with you, or it can be.
I lost my train of thought again. I hate that when that happens. So let's just go with that. So you got to explain to them what's in it for them to want to work with you and. And then also what problem you're solving.
Gosh, I had a great thought right here and then it just switched right out of my. That's as is common for me.
So let's talk about this and then when it comes back, I'll remember to tell you. So one of the things that businesses have a problem with is what we call busy work. Being busy is not the same thing as being productive. And quite often people think it is. They, you know, that's the buzzword of the. Of the moment. What are you doing today? I'm just so busy I can't see straight. But. Well, the point is, is how much of that busy work is value added work. Right? Do you even know how you spend your days? Especially those of us who work from. I work from my home office. We have a real, A real office for my employees. But for me, I work out of my home office. So, you know, do you have the discipline to work in a home office? Do you. How easily are you distracted? Are you trying to take care of your kids Kids and do laundry and watch the news all at the same time while you're trying to work? You know, I really think that everybody needs a time study to determine.
What value the work they're doing. Not only is it valuable, but is it, is it furthering your goals or furthering you toward your goals? Right. Whatever your goals are for your business.
I want you to, I want you to peel that back a little bit because it feels like we're at 30,000ft. So time study.
Yeah.
To me that's like, okay, that's too big of it. That's too big for me. What the heck does that mean? I barely have time to take a break for lunch. How the hell am I going to figure out a time study time, you know, time to do that? So tell me what that means. Tell us, tell the audience what that means. Time study.
Well, time study in my, in my vernacular means just take a day or two do. I would love to see you do a week, but I know everybody's busy, so take a day or two and kind of keep track of everything you're doing during the day. Whether it's doom scrolling. I mean that I find people get hung up in that. Even I get hung up in that on occasion. Or it's writing content or it's doing videos or it's returning phone calls. You know, what is it you're doing every day without judgment, just what are you doing? And then we can break that down into a couple of buckets. One of them are things that definitely further you towards your goals for your business. They are value added. Only you can do them. They got to be done. Then there's how many of the tasks are you doing that could be delegated to somebody else? That's probably one of the biggest eye openers when I do these time studies in the five, five day challenge to freedom is having people realize how many things they're doing that they could give to other people that do not require their attention, that they're easy enough to delegate. And then the third bucket is what can I not do at all? Right. What can I. What is just a waste of time? What is a waste of my time? And I can, it has a zero.
Return on my effort.
Yeah, it's doom scrolling for one. There is zero benefit to doom scrolling for your business. Right. It's just a distraction. It just takes up your time when you would be better off. And you know, following up with people where you have opportunities or.
Writing content or talking to your coach and getting other ideas, you know, there's so much more you can do. And I also don't think people reevaluate their goals often enough. Enough, you know, we set these goals and then they, they don't follow up with them.
But I'm going to interrupt, so I just want to make sure I understand this. So what you're saying is like doom scrolling or something along that matter. In other words, things that don't produce an ROI for my effort. It's like I like ice cream, but I don't eat it every day. Are you saying I can never doom scroll, I can never have ice cream?
No, no, no, no, no, no. Okay, you can. Well, we need a break. You know, the problem is we just can't accept.
See that?
Right. Right. If you say, I'm going to spend 15 minutes looking at Pinterest or checking out Instagram, great, do that. But there's all kinds of limits.
You can put. There's all kinds of apps you can put on your browser to, to do that for you, by the way. Like, you can put it. You can put it. You can put a. On your browser. A free browser download and it will. So you can say, hey, this is my focus time. So from this time to this time, I'm not getting notifications. I can't go browsing on those things. I'm blocking those. So you can actually block those things and there's too many to list, but you can look that up and you can certainly do that. So it'll help you, Leslie. I mean, anybody that is having scrolling.
Oh, you're funny. I am addicted to videos lately. And you know what's funny is I don't follow celebrities. I think that's a complete waste of time. You're trying to live vicariously through somebody else's life, in my opinion. You know, and those lives aren't even real. They're just for social media. So they're not really real. I'd be hard pressed to find a celebrity whose posts reflect their true life.
We just can't exceed that.
Right? Right. If you say, I'm going to spend 15 minutes looking at Pinterest or checking out Instagram, great, do that.
But limited, you can put. And there's all kinds of apps you can put on your browser to do that for you, by the way. Like, you can put it. You can put it. You can put a. On your browser, a free browser download and it will. So you can say, hey, this is my focus time. So from this time to this time, I'm not getting notifications. I can't go browsing on those things. I'm blocking those. So you can actually block those things and there's too many to list, but you can look that up and you can certainly do that. So it'll help you, Leslie. I mean, anybody that sees.
Oh, you're funny. I am addicted to videos lately. And you know what's funny is I don't follow celebrities. I think that's a complete waste of time. You're trying to live vicariously through somebody else's life, in my opinion. You know, and those lives aren't even real. They're just for social media. So they're not really real. I'd be hard pressed to find a celebrity whose posts reflect their true life. Right. However, what I do like to follow are things of interest to me like we were talking about. And so that could be depending on which platform I'm looking at. It could be craft items, it could be cooking, it could be business tips and hints and things like this podcast. It could be exercise.
Health and wellness information. It could be a lot of different things. And so I try to pepper my. But I've got one that's just conspiracy theories because I'm a huge. I love conspiracy theories. I could sit there, do that all day if you'd let me. So, you know, I have different platforms where there's just certain specific things I like to look at. And.
And when like you, I know you are like a of piece podcast addict. Not only do you create a ton of podcasts because you have more than just this one with me, but you also have the. What is the SWINGING POINT MEDIA 1.
I, I have the local voice and also have the fairway executive.
Right. And then you've got something you do with other people. Right. Don't you?
Yeah, Mortgage minute.
Which means I'm not special. But that's okay. She's special.
Short bus special. That's me.
So I think if you understand where your time is going, that's the first step, you know, and of the time that you're spending. How much of that is non billable time? Every business has some time that's non billable because you have to create content. You've got to focus on marketing. That's the cost of doing business. Right. You've got to create your marketing and your networking and go and do those things. But those help you further your business goals. What.
So let me just make sure. I, I'm gonna, I'm gonna kind of recap it. I'm gonna be like the steer. I'm gonna steer the ship here because.
Okay, Duke. As I wander.
Okay, so. So the first thing we want to do is kind of a time study. Let's find out what you're doing and let me ask You a question? Could I literally use the, the app on my phone that's a calendar that I just mark everything down that I do, and I do that for a day. Every time I do something different, I go to my calendar and say, okay, from 10:16 to 10:32, I did this, and from 10:32 to 11:05, I did this. And all of a sudden I just document. So I don't need anything special. If you have a phone, whether it's a, whether it's an iPhone or an Android or Google, whatever it is, they'll have a calendar app. And I would say just use your day schedule and say, okay, starting today, I'm just going to write everything down that I do, and I'm going to be totally honest. And you do the same thing, whether you're losing weight, you're losing, know you're working on it, whatever it is. What Leslie's saying is, let's document this and find out where, what you're doing and where all your time has been spent. Because if you don't know where you are, you have no idea where you're going. And quite frankly, that's why if you go into the doctor, the first thing they do is what they get your vitals. They say, how tall are you? What's your temperature? What's your blood pressure? What's your weight? And then from there they have this baseline. This is your baseline. So the study is a time study to find out what are you doing? And then to determine, hey, are those things that you're doing really producing an roi? And maybe what you want to do, Leslie, and stop me from wrong, but maybe you want to come up with a 1 through 10. Right? 1 is low productivity. 10 is like, it's got to be done. And for each one of those things, we go back and say, okay, let me now give it a go grade. And if it's anything of 7 or below 86 it or delegate it, is that fair?
Well, it's fair, but it's getting way complicated now. The way, to me, that's easy.
I'm just writing it down and giving it a value and saying it's in or it's out.
Well, yeah, but generally people have hard time being objective. I mean, which is why when we do this through the five day challenge, I can be the unemotional, objective person, because the person like you that's doing this stuff may put a higher value on something they enjoy doing versus something they have to do. And so you got to take the emotion out of it. You know, one of the things.
But if it's a work day. Okay. If it's a work day.
Yeah.
Talking about, hey, what are the things going on? Why is my business stop growing? And it may be because I put higher value on, on watching videos versus calling back leads. And I'm like, oh, okay, there's, there's a fricking problem. There is an elephant on the couch and I need to get rid of it. I need to focus on that. When I write it down, I can say, okay, I can still do this, but I can do it after write it down. I can say, okay, I can still do this, but I can do it after hours, after 5 o'.
Clock.
I can do these other things, but between this time and this time, I have to get things done. Fair enough.
Yes. And what, and let me give you a couple of emotional about this because.
I think it's, I think it's, it's so important. So important. Probably because I'm guilty of it.
Well, being busy is not the same thing as being strategic. So we want to teach people how to be strategic and some of the situations that will let you know that you're in a pro, you're having a problem and you really need this time study is one of them are having multiple to do lists. They just, you never finish one. There's like six or seven sheets of paper or electronic lists of things to do that, that's a symptom of this problem. Constantly in firefight mode. Right. You're, you're not looking ahead, you're not being proactive. You're, you're always reactive to everything. And firefighting is, unless you're a firefighter, that is not a good mode to be in. So that's a symptom and then a client dependency that everything you do is dependent on your hours after 5 o'.
Clock. I can do these other things, but between this time and this time, I have to get things done.
What a client says or feels or acts or, you know, you're not driving your business, you're stuck in it, working on these things instead of driving it. And that's where we want to get to, is where you're driving your business. Okay.
Would you say, would you say what you're trying to do is you're trying to become the, the orchestrator? What do they call it? The director, not the oboe player.
That's correct. Okay. Yeah. You want to direct it.
So would you say some of those things in your list that you do when you do your time so you Say, hey, these are things we can. We can delegate, and I can now go find a who instead of figure out how.
Exactly. That's why I said, you know, 100 years ago, not literally, but seems like it, I wanted to start a business doing garage sales for people. Because I'm. I love to do garage sales. I'm really good at it. I make a lot of money when I do it. A lot of it has to do with how you set up stuff, and there's a bunch of little tips and tricks, and I never. I never really got started because I got injured and everything got sidetracked. But there was a TV show that came on later. I can't think of the name of it was on hgtv, but it was one of the. It was exactly the same concept that I had in my head where you go in, you empty out the house or the room or whatever, and then you sort it into piles and you say, keep this, donate this, throw this stuff away. And that's the same mental exercise, a time study is, what do I have to keep doing because only I can do it. What can I delegate, which is to donate? And then what can I just stop doing altogether? I might change that to say, what can I automate nowadays? You know, what can I automate so that this gets done without me touching it? That's. That's a good way to go, right? And it's harder for people that are solopreneurs because they're. They're wearing all the hats, they're doing everything, and so helping them see that they can hire help. When I hired help originally, finally, my business grew like leaps and bounds because I was able to focus more on growing my business than just doing all the routine tasks. So there is a benefit to that. Okay, the next part of this that I wanted to talk about. Talk about is can I hit you.
Right on that while you're. While you're.
Yes, yes, of course.
Okay, so. So here's. Here's something. I've been. I've been master Mastermind for almost two years with Dr. Benjamin Hardy. And you sent me a book today, which I already have, so thank you. The Art of scaling by Dr. Benjamin Hardy's latest book. And his whole premise is it's nothing cutting edge because other people have spoken about it, but it's. When you start acting as if you're already that person, all of a sudden, you realize that no longer fits in my world. And let me give an example. Most people do have. Do be. In other words, hey, once I Have the money, I'll do the investing, and then I'll be the rich person. And we have that. As my grandma used to say, we have it bass ackwards. We need to start today being that person. So if you're saying, well, I want to be a successful entrepreneur that has this kind of revenue, that has this kind of family life, then you say, okay, what do I have? Who do I have to be to have that done? I can't be doing all those other little busy work. So if you'll say, why don't I start there? Because all of a sudden what will happen is it's almost like putting yourself in a Ziploc baggie. And anything that comes in or comes to you, if it's not that person you're being, then it won't get in.
And.
And that will cause you to say, if, as you said with the time study, that's not a value to me or it's something that I now delegate. Like, I probably delegate, you know, 85% of my day. And it gives me time to then work on your stuff because that consumes most of my day. But you know what I mean? So I think if we start with that mindset and anytime. And you did it in your program when you recorded your stuff in San Francisco, you know, the beginning of the year, year, you first set the mindset, because we are not going to change if we don't have the right mindset. They said there's only. There's only two things that love change, or, excuse me, one thing, love change. And that's a baby with a wet diaper. And most of us resist that. But if we'll start out saying, what are the characteristics I have to have to be successful, like Leslie? Well, let me. Let me figure that out and say, wow, there's incongruence here. I'm sleeping until 8. I'm now not working out. I'm not doing this. And by. By noon, I'm finally getting started, and I work for an hour, and now I'm bitching. Excuse me, I'm complaining because I'm not getting the revenues. That's a clue, gang. I'm not incongruent with the B that I need to have.
Well, and you. That also ties in with limiting beliefs, right? If you think that you. You can't afford to do something, you will never afford it. Right? It's like they say, well, you can't afford. You can't decide when to have kids because they're always expensive. And, you know, if you wait till you could afford it, you would never have any children. That's also true with your business. You have to invest. And I told one client, I said, I don't care if you have to rob a bank. You have to have this product so.
That you can live. This is a live show that could be recorded, recording news later. If he did wrong.
Well, it was, it was metaphorical, but it was like, you've got to find the funds to invest in this, whatever it was so that she can make her business better. Because she so desperately needed the tool that we were offering that we recommended to her desperately. It would have made her business night and day different. And she's 15 years in. Right. So, you know, if you want to be successful, you want to run a seven fig figure. I run a seven figure business, you know, under executive errands. So if you want to be that successful and anybody can do it, I mean, you can't. That you can't do it because of.
My, the person that I work with or I don't know what happened there.
Just keep going.
Oh, there we go. So, you know, you, you can't tell me that you're that much different than me. I'm just your average Joe, right. I have a lot of experience in small business ownership and corporate management and operations management and all that stuff. Yes, I do. That's why I'm here doing this today. But you too can be as successful as you want. You just have to remove your limiting beliefs and say, and see yourself successful and believe in yourself being successful, successful. And I know this sounds like woo woo stuff, but I'm a big advocate for the power of positive thought and how it can affect your business. You know, when I first started.
Really using positive imagery and thought to, to build my company, I used to visualize my bank account at a certain level. Right. But I wasn't specific enough in the intent. So the money would come in and then you go right back out, Come in and go out. I went, okay, wait, I need to change my, my.
That's called prompting. Before we got into.
Exactly. So I said, okay, I want to be this level and I want to stay at that level. Right. No matter what. And it does. It did. It hit that number and then I just kept raising that number and it kept hitting that number. And until all of a sudden I realized I had accomplished what I set out to do, you know, and it wouldn't matter. Used to freak out my daughter because it wouldn't matter if I spent money on something my bank Account didn't change. It's really interesting how that was. I, I don't have any trouble making money, right. I'm kind of like Rumpelstiltskin. I can make money. That's easy. And as long as you say that you can, you will, right? I believe that I get. Always get a parking spot next to the door, even at Christmas at the mall. And my husband is like, how do you do that? And I said, because I never seen.
Somebody have so many orange cones in their cars. Les.
No, you know, it's because I, that was my first test of the power of positive thought was the, the parking lot and where I would park. And he is constantly amazed that I always get a space. Always. It's, it's really. But it's just, it just was more training my brain and telling the universe what I wanted. And it worked, you know, and it works for business too. You just have to believe it and feel it. Otherwise it doesn't work.
Well, I'm going to share a quick story of limiting beliefs and how you can break this. And I know you probably do this in your five day when somebody says, well, I'm afraid to get on the camera. Well, let me ask you, do you know anybody like you who has been afraid and done it? Yes. So it's not gonna, Nobody's gonna die for that.
And, and feels like it.
Yeah, it feels like it. Or, you know, back in the day, I was a golf professional. I taught golf. And people come to me and I would hit balls and show them. They say, oh, it's so easy for you. And I said, well, here's the deal. I said, there's just physics behind it. And I said, if I asked you what one plus one was, what would you say? They said two. And I said, well, what if you were in Germany? They said, still be two. And I said, what about in Africa? It too. I said, my point is, no matter what you do, if you understand the physics behind will always be the same. And so what Leslie, I think is Leslie saying is if you follow these rules, you follow these guidelines, if you will, the results have to work for you.
Right.
Big takeaway of what you just said. If you start imagining money in your bank account and this is not about change has to come from mindset change. I can do that. And understanding your limiting beliefs. So sorry we got off on that track, but I just want to share that.
Well, it's important. You know, small business owners are creative individuals and a good portion of them believe in the power of positive thought. You know, even when I, I mean, I think a big portion of the world these days believes in that because we're constantly being told that you can have whatever you want in life, that you, the universe provides. And it does. It does. But you have to believe it and you have to live like it. You know, if you get into the point where business is a little bit down for whatever reason and you stop spending, then you're just, you're just telling the universe, okay, I don't have the money to do this, so I don't need the money, so it won't come to you. It's just a weird thing how it works. And we could go on all day about setting intentions and, and power, positive thoughts, and I don't want to lose what we're doing today, but.
It, it really works. And if you aren't sure about it, by all means, give me a call or give Jeff a call. We'll help you out. I did want to Talk about the 5 hidden growth blockers that are out there. And these are things that stop your business from growing. And it's true for every kind of business. It doesn't matter what kind of business you run. This, these things affect everybody. I see them over and over and over again in these five day challenges. And so it's kind of easy to help people because everybody has the same issues. One of them is that the owner of the company tends to be the bottleneck, right? And they even tell me that I know I'm the bottleneck because I'm afraid to delegate, I'm afraid to have somebody do it. They won't do it the way way I want it, you know, and that's not true. There is a way to fix it so they will do it. And that leads right into the second growth blocker. And that's a lack of clear systems. If you don't have policies and procedures to tell people to operate exactly how you want them to, even if that's yourself, right, Then you are not ever going to be able to delegate properly. You know, I had one lady tell me, and this is common, she told me, you know, it takes me longer to explain it to somebody than it does to do it myself. And yeah, that's probably true, but it's the old teach a man to fish. Is that a metaphor allegory? What is that? I don't know what it is. So, you know, if you tell, take the time to tell somebody how to do something, then they can always do it for you. If you don't take that time, then you're stuck always doing it yourself. And then it goes back to being a bottleneck. So it's just a big gigantic circle and not what you want at all.
And that's part of inadequate delegation. So. Oh, you know, tribal knowledge is a big problem too. Have you heard that terminology, tribal knowledge?
Sure.
You know, I was working at a factory in pa. Pasadena? No, Glendale. Glendale, California. Oh, my God. It's a long time ago. And I was a consultant and they hired me in there to, to be over their operations department and to help them improve their productivity and stuff. And one of the guys there, he was like the go to guy, this employee, and he had all this tribal knowledge. He knew things that were not documented, that were not written down and allowed him to be, be successful, but he wouldn't share that information with anybody else because he, he. I don't whether he just had a hero complex and wanted to swoop in and fix the day, or he thought that letting other people know how to do things would, would dilute his value.
So I fired him.
Did you see that coming?
Wow.
He's not listening to me. He's thinking about something else.
I heard about that. Okay.
I did. And, and the, and the people that worked for me in there around him almost had a heart attack. It's like, oh my God, what are we going to do? And I said, we're going to figure it out because I cannot have somebody working for me that hoards knowledge. Right. And I'm the same way. I'm a full disclosure person. If I don't tell you some, you ask me a question and I don't give you all everything I know, then I've forgotten it or I just lost my train of thought. As happens all the time these days. I'm full disclosure. The more knowledge you share with other people, the better all of you do. Your business does better, the people do a better job. Everything is better. And by the way, in that story, we survived just fine. You know, did we have a couple hiccups? Yeah. Yeah. But you know that that's to be expected when somebody's hoarding all the tribal knowledge. Eventually it all got worked out, all got documented, and everybody did better. So it was a good thing. But you can't keep somebody around who hoards information because. And you can't be the one who's hoarding it either. That's really the point. As a small business owner, you have to document what you know so other people can do it and so that you can, can maintain your Continuity and quality of services or products.
Can I just share?
Sure.
Just a tool. Let me just type it out here.
One of the most challenging things I think Leslie, for a lot of people are creating those standard operating procedures. And there's a product called Scribe. And they're not promote, we're not promoting it. They're not, they're not sponsoring a show. I just know that it's a tool you can use to help you create your policies and procedures and you can do it a lot faster and easier than sitting down, say, okay, step one, step two, step 86. It will help you with that. So that's all I wanted to share.
Thank you. I also help people make their policies and procedures and my name's not Scribe, but can help them too. As a matter of fact, we even have.
Already, for the lifestyle management industry. We already have policies and procedures that we offer for sale to people so that they can have a baseline and they can adopt what they want and modify it for the, or, you know, modify them for their own use so it gives them a running start at it.
Well, for, well, for you, Leslie, I mean that's, that's a industry specific that you said.
Yes.
You know what? You've already created the map. You have the X on the map where the pot of gold is.
Yeah.
Now it's like, why wouldn't I just take that and run with it? So, yes, if you are in that situation, you're saying, I would love to just copy and paste and follow, follow through with this, put my own sim. Then Leslie is your person. And because she already has it done, she has a seven figure business doing this. Don't, don't get, you know, don't misunderstand this. She is a genius at what she does. So take advantage of that.
Sarah. Oh, I'm gonna blush.
Let's go to number four.
Okay, so no measurable goals or KPIs. And KPI stands for key performance indicators. So you have to have smart, what they call smart goals. Specific, measurable, attainable.
It's R. I forgot R.
I forgot what car is realistic and, and something that you can track. So that's a smart goal. And you have to have those in your business. And sometimes you can get lost in what the goal of your business is. I always say look out at least five years and visualize how you see your business. Do you have employees? Do you have different services than you have today? Are you adding products? Products? Are you going to be in a bigger facility? You know, how do you see where you're going and then we can work on an action plan on how to get you there. KPI's Key Performance Indicators have to do with metrics measurements. And metrics measurements are, it's, I call it the gold star method. What pieces of your business do you need to measure and track so that you can keep.
Keep working towards continuous process improvement? And you know, all through the 80s and the 90s especially, there were a lot of continuous process improvement initiatives in business. Usually they changed every time somebody new came into management. So much so my sister got sick of it. Where she used to work, she was there 35 years and she got so sick of them coming up with the same things over and over again and never accomplishing anything. Anything. But small business owners are unique in that because they have more control and there's fewer opinions, they can make this, they can affect change the way they want to. I'll give you an example. A key performance indicator for a manufacturing company may be on time delivery. And so, you know, I got to deliver so many products, I'm sick of it. Where she used to work, she was there 35 years and she got so sick of this, them coming up with the same things over and over again and never accomplishing anything. But small business owners are unique in that because they have more control and there's fewer opinions. They can make this, they can affect change the way they want to. I'll give you an example. A key performance indicator for a manufacturing company may be on time delivery. And so, you know, I got to deliver so many products a month. Month. And I have a forecast and I want to measure what, how I do in meeting that forecast. Obviously the goal is 100% on time delivery, but nobody really achieves it. There's always something that happens. So when you go and you do your shipping, you do your analysis for that month, you say how many didn't ship? Oh, 2% did not ship on time. Why? What's the root cause? That they did not ship on time. Time. Right. And then you can say, okay, here's the root cause. What kind of corrective action do I have to put in place to eliminate that problem so that I can then achieve 99% on time delivery or so forth. Anything you measure improves. So us, for us small business owners, we need to find those key performance indicators. Month. And I have a forecast and I want to measure what, what, how I do in meeting that forecasters that tells us how we're doing as a company. Now for me, in executive errands, a key performance indicator Is past due.
Tasks past. Obviously the goal is 100% on time delivery, but nobody really achieves it. There's always something that happens. So when you go and you do your shipping, you do your analysis for that month month used to do quotes, past due schedules. I can tell if my people are managing their clients properly by the number or lack thereof of how many past due things they have. Say how many didn't ship? Oh, 2% did not ship on time. Why? What's the root cause? That they did not ship on time. Right. And then you can say, okay, here's the root cause. So we manage by exception, right. So we're only looking at what's past you. If it's not past due, I know they're on top of it and they're taking care of things. If it is past due, why? And what do we have to do to fix it? And we have a procedure that will fix it. And if not, do we need to create one? Right. The one thing about metrics and key performance indicators are that.
People take it personally when you say what kind of corrective action do I have to put in place to eliminate that problem so that I can then achieve 99% on time delivery or so forth. Anything you measure improves. So us, for us small business owners, we need to find those key performance indicators. Why didn't you do this? So you don't want to say it that way. In the case of my on time delivery, people would say, Well, I got 98% percent out. Isn't that good enough? No, I gotta focus on the 2%. It's not personal. This is a process issue. What broke in the process that I couldn't get 2% of my product out the door or I didn't get 2% of my quotes done on time? That tells us how we're doing as a company. Now for me in executive errand, or I didn't get get 2% of my task finished and a key performance indicator is past due.
Tasks pass in a timely manner, you know what's happening, that's preventing it. And then how do I fix that so I don't have that problem again? Right. So you have to focus on what's not done and for the small business owner, identifying what the key performance indicators are for your particular business owner vary, which is why you need a coach, which is why you need somebody that understands a metrics program that can help you streamline your business. So you're so I know we're running out of time today. So just to talk about this much of it.
You, you've got to identify what your blockages are or what are the specific.
What indicators do you have that your business isn't running, you're working, you're stuck in it and not working on it. And we talked about that, right? Some of those are endless lists of things to do or not being productive in the day or whatever. So we do the time study to try to figure out what time we have. And then realizing that quite often we a business owner is the major impediment to you're growing your business because you're focused on the wrong things. Do quotes, past due schedules. I can tell if my people are managing their clients properly by the number or lack thereof of how many past due things they have. So we manage by exception, right? So we're only looking at what's past due if it's not and we can go over that again another time. And then.
What systems do I need to automate and how can I implement KPI so that I can measure the health of my business and work on my business and not in it? You're going to hear me say that over and it's my new thing this year I like because remember you remember when I used to fall asleep at my desk, right. I'd work 36 hours sleep, not past due. I know they're on top of it and they're taking care of things. If it is past due, why and what do we have to do to fix it? And we have a procedure that will fix it and if not, do we need to create one? Right. At least twice a week. So I get up and start working at five in the morning and it would be midnight the next day before I would stop and I would literally fall asleep at my desk. And I couldn't take a vacation without taking my laptop and checking my emails and making phone calls and interjecting myself into every decision that got made in my. I have six employees and I was interjecting my opinion, talking to clients when they should have been doing it. Now we're focused. This last year I was able to take right. The one thing about metrics and key performance indicators are that.
People take it personally when you say why didn't you do this? So you don't want to say it that way. In the case of my on time delivery, people would take a vacation and none of that happened because I have learned the secret to working on your business and not in it. And that's a secret that I want to share with every single person out There and we talked about some of those secrets today. Right. So we need to find. I'm just, I feel like I'm waiting for you to say something because I don't know where your head is. I can see that your eyes are glazed over.
I just, I just, I just kind of want to. I just kind of want to recap because.
Yeah, go ahead.
We've given you a lot of spaghetti, if you will. And so the first thing, the first thing that I'm getting out of this is we need to find out where we are right now. We need to take our vitals, you know, what's our heartbeat, what's our, what's our, you know, blood pressure. In this case we're like where are.
To we supposed say Well I got 98 out. Isn't that good enough? No, I gotta focus on the two in our time.
And then we have to decide okay are we acting as that person we.
Want percent it's not personal. This is a process issue. What broke in the process to be.
Because it should be be do have, not have do be right. And the other one is understanding there's limiting beliefs. Oh Leslie can do that, but I can't. Well or I can't have that much money in my bank account. You have to start listening to those and say wait a minute, is this is that thought really serving me? And if the answer is no, you have the power to change that. Remember, you are a mind with a body and you are in control. You are the orchestrator, you're the conductor.
Conductor. You can you that I couldn't get 2% of my product out the door or I didn't get get 2% of my quotes done on time or I didn't get 2% of my task finished in a timely manner. You know what's happening that's preventing it. And then how do I fix that so I don't have that problem.
You can analyze it and say wait a minute, that is stinking thinking. Get it out of there. And then another thing are yeah right.
So you have to focus on what's not done and for the small business owner identifying what the key performance indicators are for your particular business will vary.
Which working on the things at that are creating your highest roi. And that goes back to the number. You know the number one thing is doing the time study and then understanding hey with each one of those tasks or proceed processes. Do I have a clear system in place? Like as example if I'm, if I'm making a video is there a clear path that if I weren't there, my staff could get in there and still do it. Yes. Okay. With Leslie, with her staff, she has very clear policies and procedures. Those systems in place mean so much. And what she just admitted and because here's the thing, it happens to even somebody like Leslie. But I know when she was falling asleep at her desk versus what she's doing now, she has probably 3 to 5 extra.
Is why you need a coach, which is why you need somebody that understands a metrics program that can help you streamline your business. So you're so. I know we're running out of time today. So just to talk about this much of it.
You. You've got to identify what your blockages are or what are the specific.
Revenue.
When she said, oh, I am the owner and I am the bottleneck and the cash cannot flow. My business can't grow if I'm in the way. And I think that was huge. And then understanding if you've got somebody within your business that's saying, and it's usually us, we're the business owners, we're holding this back because we're afraid, like somebody's going to take my power if I share it. No, no, it's just going to empower yourself staff to do much, much better. I have a gentleman who has, over the years he's been a client, two or three of his people have left him and started competing businesses. And he feels bad about that. And I said, hey, you shouldn't feel bad about that because competition is healthy, right?
And what it's done, what indicators do you have that your business isn't running, you're working, you're stuck in it and not working on it. And we talked.
His business has grown. And instead of harboring bad feelings, he should say, what I'm doing is a really good job because I'm really training these people at a highest level. And so I think the last thing you talked about is, and as you're doing this, measure it. If I'm doing a weight loss program as an example, and I get on the scale and I do my. What's my baseline? And tomorrow I started all those things and a week later I got on the scale and.
And I'm warned about that, right? Some of those are endless lists of things to do or not being productive in the day or whatever. So we do the time study to try to figure out what time we.
Have and then ounce lighter. I must be doing the right thing. I must be doing something better. If I'm heavier, then I have to go back and look at those things. So I think when we talk about hey, why is our business not growing? These are.
And realizing that, that quite often we, A business owner is the key elements.
That you can look at and say, wait a minute, let me, let me first see what am I really, really doing here? Am I busy or am I productive?
Am I effective? So are you being strategic in what you're doing? We have to major impediment to your growing your business because you're focused on the wrong things. We have to make a conscious decision to work on our business than not in it. And it's hard. You know, like I said, I work with a lot of people in my five day challenge and they all tell me and we can go over that again another time. And then.
You know, well, the client's attached to me. That's just excuse.
The. Or they're saying, can I, can I.
Jump in there for just for a second. And I take it back to the very first thing. If you miss this, you can go back and listen to the beginning. I was talking about a situation I was in where I had a choice of waiting online for a human or AI answering immediately.
What systems do I need to automate and how can I implement KPIs so that I can measure the health of my business and work on my business and not in it. You're going to hear me say that over. And it's my new thing this year I like. Because remember you remember when I used to fall asleep at my desk? Right. I'd work 36 hours straight.
I just wanted as a customer, I wanted to be taken care of. Your customers feel the same way. If you can put somebody in there competently handling those things, they don't care if it's you, the owner or you the or the other person who you've hired to do the job. And when you do that, you can move so much faster and freer. So.
Right. Right.
Do we. You got a link up there? Do I have a.
This is your five day freedom challenge. So you have a. You have a landing page on your website. So for concierge solution. And so if you go to that link, there's an opportunity for you to. And she only does three a week. Okay. She does three one on one five day challenges. Now write this down because you want to know how much it's going to cost you. Nothing. Your time. And here's somebody as, as we've talked about here, Leslie.
Right. At least twice a week. So I get up and Start working at five in the morning and it would be midnight then as multiple businesses.
And seven figure businesses so you can learn from her. She's already the be do have you may be looking for and this is an opportunity for you to spend 5, 5 days consecutively with her for 45 minutes a day. And it's not about oh, I'm just going to tell you things. She's going to take your vitals, she's going to find out where are you at now, where do you want to go, what's missing and help you do that. There's going to be a transformation in five days. Have I oversold that, Leslie?
No. I mean not according to the testimonials we posted online from people that have done done it. Yeah, it's free because I want to help you and I want you to get a clear vision for your business because next day before I would stop and I would literally fall asleep at my desk and I couldn't take a vacation without taking my laptop and checking my emails and making phone calls and interject. The more people that we can help, especially in our industry, which is the lifestyle management industry industry, the more people that myself into every decision that got made in my I have six employees and I was interjecting my opinion, talking to I can help in that industry, the stronger that industry is going to be. And you know, if you look at the projections out through 2035, it is one of the fastest growing industries clients when they should have been doing it. Now we're focused. This last year I was able to take on the planet lifestyle management industry because society has changed and there's a whole bunch of reasons for it but all the statistics indicate they're probably short of pickleball. It is the fastest growing industry and so I want people to be positioned so that they can achieve massive success. I don't want them just to have a job. I want them to be successful. And so if I can help do that, and I know I can through the five day challenge and that's what I want to do. I want to take a vacation and none of that happened because I have learned the secret to working on your business and not in it.
So invite you all if this is again, if this is your first time. This is called the twisted, bent and exhausted entrepreneur podcast and I just want to share with you. Also we have episodes on on Spotify and we, we've never done a live episode before. Today we decided to do a live episode and we'd love for you to check out our episodes, the one coming out for this is today is 3rd September, 4th of September is the bargain regret. And this is one of those things that said if you have purchased something or purchased a service and you did it on the cheap, did you have any regrets? So we talk about all kinds of kinds of things. The cost of doing it cheap AI is overwhelming you. Why Cheap can cost you money, specific use case, all kinds of stuff. But again, the bottom line, you guys is, is this just like today. We want this to be a value to you. We don't want it to be a waste of your time. We've been on this for an hour and eight minutes and you might have.
And that's a secret that I want to share with every single person out there. And we talked about some of those secrets today. Right? So we need to find. I'm just feel like I'm waiting for you to say something.
Cruised in and out and you got what you needed at that time. You're like, we're like a, like a bird feeder. Like Leslie has a bird feeder outside her, outside her window for hummingbirds. They come and get what they want. They go do their thing, they come back and get some more. We are that resource. So we invite you to join us on the twisted, bent and exhausted.
I think I don't know where your head is. I can see that your eyes are glazed over.
I just, I just, I just, I just kind of want to podcast and that is over on Spotify. You can also get it on Leslie's YouTube channel at Leslie Spore or my, my YouTube channel is @ Swing Point Media or Jeff Harrison. So.
Recap. Because, yeah, go.
Ahead. We've given you a lot of spaghetti, if you will. And so I just want to share that with you before we scoot it out of.
Here. Well, and one last thing too is that I have blog post posts on concierge business solutions website that are also full of education, free education just on the blog post. So be sure to check those out as well. They're at conciergebusinesssolutions.com under. I think it's about us and blog posts. So check that out as well. You know there's a lot of free content from us from Jeff and myself. You should take advantage of it. But for sure watis podcast. Share them like them. Can they subscribe? I don't.
Know. They can, they can subscribe to the first thing, the first thing that I'm getting out of this is we need to find out where we are right now, we need to take our.
Vitals, you know, subscribe so you get notified when a new episode comes out. And we try to be funny about this stuff, which is a very serious topic about being a successful entrepreneur. I said it, and there it is. That's what you're looking for. That's us. And we thank you so much for giving us your time. Give us your time and to learn from us. We. It gives us great.
Joy. Great. Well, Leslie, thank you so much for. I really appreciate doing this and doing it live. I hope you have enjoyed the show. And please leave a comment. If you're watching this on a repeat or rerun, please let us know what you think. What's our heartbeat? What's our blood pressure? In this case, we're like, where are we spending our time? And then we have to decide, okay, are we acting as that person we want to be? Because it should be. Be, do, have, not have, do, be. And the other one is understanding there's limiting beliefs. Oh, Leslie can do that, but I.
Can'T.
Well. Or I can't have that much money back. Thought of it. Is it. Was it valuable? What? One piece was a good takeaway, and we hope to see you on another live or certainly on our other episodes. We've got, you know, this. This is technically our 35th episode, and we look forward to helping you more. So, Leslie, thank you so much. I really appreciate.
It. My pleasure. Always. Bye, you guys.
