Franchise Success Starts in Your Mind Franchise Fridays with Jeff Dudan #194

Hey everybody. Welcome to Unemployable with Jeff Duden. This is Franchise Friday. What role does full commitment and personal responsibility play in entrepreneurship? I've got five, count them, five buckets to talk about with you if you are considering entrepreneurship today, whether in your own business or with the franchise. This is stuff that I've talked about and learned over the last 30 years. Number one, know thyself. We all have that innermost voice in our head, that one. We're most honest and most extrospective with ourselves. And what do I mean by extrospective? If there was a corner that was had a camera and it was on you at all times, like how would you behave? Like, how close does your belief with how you behave line up with how you actually behave? He you see yourself clearly. We also have a lifetime of experiences, starting in childhood, through our formative years, through our relationship history and throughout our career that informs us who we really are, what is our need for comfort, what is our risk profile and how do we react in the face of danger, adversity and conflict? There's one question you have to ask yourself and it's really quite simple. How easy do I quit? What is my level of tolerance for pain, stress and anxiety over a long period of time? I'm not trying to dramatize what entrepreneurship is truly like because there are great days, but there are days where there is nobody to turn to and you are responsible for the decision, for the action and for any consequences. I was building a business with a business partner during COVID and the question was is what is the right thing to do? On one hand, there would be a financial loss if we made a certain decision. And on the other hand, there was an unknown at the time health and safety risk to our employees and possibly our members. The decision was simple, even though the consequences would be hard. And you cannot go away from making the right decision just because there's going to be short term consequences to you or your business. You need to ask yourself, in the face of the short term financial impairment, are you willing to make the right decision for the long term health and wellness of the business and suffer any of these short term consequences or will you bend to the pressure and perhaps even quit? Our business at Homefront brands are very low cost and so as long as people show up and deliver their level best, even if the business ultimately doesn't work out for them and I can help them have a soft landing, the only people that I cannot help are those who quit. And quitting is A trend. Quitting is a habit. And laying down the bulb before all the time is off the clock is permanent. The good news about quitting is that it is a decision. And just because you've made lots of quitting decisions in the past, doesn't mean you need to make them in the future. And I don't care who you listen to for inspiration, whether it's Tony Robbins or any other mindset motivational guru, they are all aligned on the perspective that if you do hard things every the hard things become the easy things. Because there is, there is no question in your mind that you are going to do the thing, whatever that is, and follow through to the end. If you are currently looking at changing your life through franchising, I would suggest that you have this honest conversation with yourself and come up without asking for validation or perspective from other people who know you. Because you don't need to go anywhere other than looking right in the mirror to get that honest answer. You know deep down in your gut who you are and what you're likely to do because you've done it your whole life and you already know it. And maybe, just maybe, before you sign that franchise agreement, you might should take three months sabbatical or six months and go do some hard things and prove to yourself that once you make a decision that you will follow it through all the way to the end, no matter what, how hard it is or how long it takes. Because that's what successful entrepreneurs do. It never crosses their mind to quit, only to learn, adjust, adapt and overcome until they are ultimately successful. So whether that's climb a mountain or cold plunge every day or something else that you were fearful of and uncomfortable with, Every day or every week for three to six months, you will change your relationship with quitting. Number two is mindset. I love a guy named Chris Collins. I talk about him a lot. He wrote an incredible two book set called I Am Leader. And I highly recommend this for anybody who is thoughtfully considering who they are and who they need to be to change their life in a meaningful way. Because by the way, that opportunity is here for all of us. And one of the things that he emphasizes is this concept of internal versus external locus of control. If you have an external locus of control, the world happens to you. You are pushed around in life by a series of continuous external factors that you don't control, but you allow to determine your level of success, satisfaction or or failure. Once you see this in other people, you cannot unsee it. I see it in owners who spend more Time investigating other franchise owners who are not doing well to try to find the excuse that would allow them to quit so that they have a justification to themselves and that they can point and blame others when they finally decide to give it up and they don't have to take the responsibility themselves. On the other hand, an internal locus of control, which Chris Collins indicates is only about 10% of us in the world understand that things are going to happen, maybe realize that most people are playing by the same set of rules. So these circumstances are not unique to them. It's just the game that everybody is playing and when things don't go as planned, they simply get on with it. People with an internal locus of control tend to be very curious, come up, but not jealous of high performers who might have perspective and show them a way to do something bigger, better or faster, and with humility, are constantly trying to figure out how to improve their own circumstances by being fully accountable for the changes that need to get made without blame, accusation or dysflection, and ultimately take full responsibility for the failures and share or even give all the credit or the success to the others who have helped them achieve it. People with an internal locus of control are the puppet masters, but they are never the puppet. They pull the strings and see what happens and they continually work to figure out what strings to pull to create the greatest and most aligned movement in their lives and their business versus the puppets who allow anybody and everything, any condition, to challenge or define who they are and impact the outcome that they have told themselves that they desire and that they deserve. Dr. Ben Carson 1 time said that if it is to be, it's up to me. And the person who has the most to do with what happens to you is always you. This is the way that I choose to live. And because you don't put unreal expectations on other people or other factors, you're much happier, much more Mathild, and you come up less angry and more productive. Number three about commitment focus. The great stoic and philosopher Jerry Seinfeld once said that a lack of focus will always lead to a lack of greatness. And if you look back at your life there has always been a very small number of variables and that have led to the greatest successes that you have ever had. And it is your job as an entrepreneur to calm the swirl and identify those vital few actions and behaviors or people, levers, whatever it is, and focus deeply on the 20% of things that are going to give you the greatest lift. First things first. Second things never. Which leads to my next realization is that your success ultimately is more about what you subtract than what you add. If you right now created a piece of paper and drew a simple line down the middle, on the left put subtract and on the right side put the word add with 2ds and thought deeply about everything that you do in your life and your business, I would think that you would start to create a list of things that you should stop doing or discontinue. One thing that helped me with this is to learn to put parameters around my time, such as including building a business, any compensation that I would benefit from that business and the sale of that business. And ultimately, how many dollars per hour did I make? Was it worth my time, my energy, my investment, and most importantly or as importantly, my opportunity cost? So think about your time. Think about it. At $100 an hour, there's a gazillion things you could do to make $100 an hour. There's much less you can do to make $500 an hour, which is about a million dollars a year if you're working full time now. What if you were to challenge yourself to make $5,000 an hour? You would either have to work less hours or do something that was going to be much more beneficial or much more scalable, or have a bigger exit or pay you more along the way. And my gosh, you can go to $10,000 an hour or as high as you want to go. The higher the return on time, the smaller number of things you can actually do to get that return. So depending on where you set your standards on your return on time will tell you that if there are any opportunities or actions that you need to refer right now, subtract from your life because they will not meet your requirements. Ultimately, they're just wasting your time, exhausting your will and burning your energy. And many people look like nine to five jobs like that. Because you're getting paid time for dollars, you can't really create things or businesses that make money for you while you sleep, which is a great use of your time. Because I never want to be broke and tired too. I want to be well rested and wealthy. Number four, your speak. A bold future or a North Star. If you've listened to me at all, you understand that one of my favorite quotes is it is your responsibility whether you're a business owner or or not to speak a bold, powerful future into existence for you and your business or any group of people you're leading, like a church group or a baseball team or a football team, or even your family. One of my greatest recommendations come from Vern Harnish who said everyone should take two to four hours a week and go to a quiet place and review their one year plan and their three year painted picture of what they wanted to accomplish in great detail by every descriptive measure that you can possibly include and decide if that is still your North Star destination. I will promise you that if you begin with the end in mind in great detail, the steps that you will take to get there will be completely different than if you start from where your feet are today and try to build a plan going forward. Regression analysis I'll say it again. Regression analysis. Starting from a future point and working backwards every day on every project in every business that matters is a hallmark of great leaders. Because they are looking for the fastest, most efficient way to get where they have to go and have decided and described where they're heading, what their North Star is. And if you can only do this, if you have developed the capability to calm the swirl in your head, get rid of all the distractions and the friction that just don't matter. Those things that you need to distract come with the things that will take you farther away from your goal, then bring you closer to it. And then when you have that vision boldly and repeatedly in every conversation that matters over, communicate it to the people you are responsible to lead or you are seeking to align with your purpose and your vision and your mission. Speak a bold future. Find a North Star. Yes, I'm giving you tools and these tools will help you make it systematic within you. Your programming, your coding, your operating system to continually recommit. And over time your mind will never even allow the thought of quitting to sneak in your head because you have the programming. Some final perspective for a guy who's had a ton of failure and a handful of successes. As long as you're honest with the people and you have a good intent, there should be no regrets of trying, failing and trying again until ultimately succeeding and bringing people with you and changing lives of those around you. There are many careers that honorable men and women participate in. Police, fire, military. That can be fatal in some circumstances. But business building and entrepreneurship is rarely fatal and the failures are more uncomfortable and embarrassing than life threatening. Get over it. Adversity is promised to everyone in life, even if you choose to play it safe. But I suggest that if you are not living on the edge in some capacity, you are just taking up space and I don't know a business owner who looks back at the struggles and trials and risk that they went through building a great business that have any regrets whatsoever. In fact, they will tell you that it was the most worthwhile, meaningful thing that they ever did, not that they were taught valuable lessons to their employees, their children, anybody in their tight circle of influence who witnessed them struggling and working and overcoming to build something for the benefit of the community and perhaps especially other people than themselves. And the rewards can be great because businesses are a high class asset, from avoiding the employment tax to taking advantage of the tax code, to having the opportunity to meet people you would have never met and experienced things you would have missed out on, which gives you optionality in your life to make decisions and choices that you alone get to make about what actually happens to you. I guess to close the loop you could say that an internal locus of control can lead you to a place of autonomy and control over the experience that your life ultimately is for you and we only have one and nothing is guaranteed. There's no free lunch. Everything has a price. What are you willing to pay in sacrifice for the prize that you have decided that is worthwhile for you? Anyway, that's the way I see it. I hope this has been helpful for you. This has been a franchise Friday of the Unemployable podcast with Jeff Duden. And of course you can always go to the link below to get a free copy of my book Discernment the Business Athletes Regimen for a Great Life Through Better Decisions to help you think through these inflection points that we all face and how to use decision filters to give you the best outcome possible. And if you are interested and ready and you won't quit to learn about anything that Homefront Brands is doing, you can go to homefrontbrands.com or click the link below. Check out our brands. I promise you won't be disappointed. Thanks for listening.