\Jumping on Grenades - From Micro Manager to Macro Manager

Welcome to this episode of the Million Dollar Mastermind.

I'm Larry Weddell.

And before we get started, if you want to know exactly how to win again and again, go to Wydell on winning.com webinar now to watch something I've put together for you. Now let's get going into this episode of Million Dollar Mastermind.

I'm here with Brian Maimon. And Bryant is a master of winning in multiple industries. Over decades in his life, you know, there's just one thing has evolved into another. And most of these he's kind of kept going. And now he's been able to see this process duplicated where both of his boys have successful, growing business, businesses of their own. And that, you know, that's really probably one of the most rewarding things for you to see it transfer. You know, they grew up and they picked up that spirit and they raced off with their own, their own thing. The one bad thing is you don't have them like I do. You don't have where I've got Adam helping me and my, my business, which I couldn't do it without him. You don't have either one of them with you. You screwed up on that part.

So. Yeah, I did screw up on that. I do. They both know long term that's where they're going to be.

But you got Lindley.

You got Lindley, I have Lindley.

So you've got a little breathing room there. But talk about what allows that, Brian. That grows. And this is something you've had to learn. And you talked about it last time, the idea of getting a system, you really got to force yourself to organize things down to a system.

Where you.

Can get help, you can offload some of the things that until you got thought through that in your mind, you would have thought, you know, I'm the only one who can do this and everything. Yeah, you're the only one who can do it because you never bothered to break it down and think it through. You've just been a busy doer. You know, it's easier to just race through and do it yourself rather than say, what in the world am I doing? What really is the part that only I could do and what can I offload on somebody else if I'll take the time to write it down, explain it, bring somebody in and teach them and let them make mistakes and let them grow gradually. And that's had for you. That had to be a hard thing and continue to be a hard thing for you to do because you are such a Hands on leader, which is great in launching, but then for progression, they throw founders out of a lot of companies because the founders want to keep their tight grip on everything and not let the company evolve. And you addressed that earlier where you said, don't build a system and then be rigid about it. Let it evolve and grow. And it will evolve and grow more the more you bring other people in and they'll do things that you think, well, that's crazy. But it's maybe crazy for you because you can't do it that way, but they can do it brilliantly. So at some point you got to trust people. So that had to be a tough thing for you to work your way through. And so talk about that, how you, how you did that.

Well, you know what, you're exactly right. When we were building our first, I guess, really big business, our little meat market was great, but I was everything. Then when I got into financial services, you, you know, it was still, I was pretty focused on what it was, my way or the highway as it started working. And I look at like your story and it helped me because I know when you exploded into new regions and you were that guy in our firm early on, and I know this from the history lessons, not because I was there, but you were that guy that tested boundaries and made our management of our company really say, okay, you know what? There's something to what Larry's doing because he's growing, even though it doesn't fit exactly into this temple, a template. And there had to be a system, and then you outgrew that system. So what we have to do is, as an entrepreneur is we can't say this is the way it has to be. Because what it won't do is it won't encompass macro leaders. It'll only attract micromanagers. And as I've evolved and started new enterprises and different businesses, I had to really realize that and that I had to be a macro manager and allow people, I had to set up micro disciplines that they needed to understand in the system. And. But then I had to let them have their own personality type, their own attitude, their own approach and their own application, really start working that system. And as long as it was producing the right results, which we were getting the right customer experience, we were getting the right product out the front door, whether and the service was represented the right way, then I had to let people really explore their own personalities and develop their own stylistic approach. And then what happened once I started doing that? And it's Larry, it was, it was Honestly, like God just said, okay, here it is. You did that. You're allowing all these people to do that. I'm going to reward you. And sales and service and products and distribution and everything just started opening up and it went crazy. I mean, it absolutely went crazy. And, and now it's like, when we open a business, we understand that's what we can do, and that's the approach we need to take. And we have operating guidelines, but that's exactly what they are, is guidelines. And it really has allowed a lot of people to win in our verticals and to see great success. And the customers and consumer have really, you know, been able to digest a great experience, product and service, because of that management style.

You know, I've left you alone for like 10 years, and all of a sudden you come back and you're talking language like verticals. My.

Yes, my, my life has changed.

Larry, this is Brian. I thought a vertical was, you're standing up versus horizontally down, but now, now talk about what specifically? You know, as in everything, this first step is the hardest. So do you remember your first steps that you had to force yourself through of offloading some of these things and adding people on and going through that process? Was that difficult for you? And, and talk about that.

It was, it was super difficult because I wanted, I wanted it to. The results I, that I had gotten were from the actions I had engaged in. And so what happened was I was like, I'm not giving that up. That, that created great results for me. I'm. That I'm not going to have somebody else do that. And then if I did, I, I micromanaged it and, or was hypercritical of their approach. And so I leveled, you know, I just had this, I had this leveling in my business and businesses, and then I went, okay, and do I see myself doing this 30 years from now? So one of the things I ask myself all the time now is, am I going to be doing this in five years, seven years, and ten years? And if the answer is no, I'm not going to be doing this, or no, I don't want to be doing this, then what I need to do is I need to offload that. And then I have written curriculum, or I come up with a curriculum approach to developing someone or some component to manage that, not maybe exactly how I would, but with the same results as I expected. And so that has changed my life forever. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to do what I do with all the stuff that we have going on.

Hey, listen, There's a lot of information online, but there aren't a lot of people who have actually done something. In my case, I've actually built a successful business, has accrued over $5 billion in assets under management, and has done well even during times. Now, if you want to know exactly how I've done this, go to Whiteellumwinning.com webinar Now, I've compressed a decade of learning into five short weeks. Just for those of you who want to give yourself an incredible advantage and are tired of waiting and watching others.

Move up for an example. Under that, again, you being naturally the hands on, jump in first kind of guy. I can remember there's a time for that when you're in the beginning, but in what you want to do is you want to, as you go and build your team, you want to build teammates, leaders on your team that when a problem comes up, they have that thing. They're not sitting back waiting for you to jump in, right? They jump on the grenade. You know, they're, they'll, you know, they're jump on the grenade. They're. It's like, that's my job. I take responsibility. I've got ownership of this thing. And if you're always out there jumping on grenades, there's not gonna be a whole lot of you left, you know. And so the idea is develop that spirit inside of them. For example, I know when we're out one of those hunting trips in some rat hole in a town that's never seen civilization in Mexico, uh, coming back on those, you know, out, you know, Todd will say, you know, it's just 45 minutes up the road, you know, and like three and a half hours later, right? You know, of eating dust and riding in the back of the pickup, you know, the axle breaks or something goes wrong and it's not going anymore. Well, before you know it, Brian's off the truck and underneath and he's fixed this. Like there's nothing under there you could fix. Brian, you know, it broke, but sure enough you put it back together. But the thing is like, you want to build, and that's great, you know, because we were all equal in that situation. And we were always all great that you were along.

That farm kid from Iowa that could fix anything with a little baling wire and duct tape helped.

So. But the idea, you want to build a company, don't be the first one. As you get along, don't be the first one to jump in, See, Give them a chance to jump. And what happens is the Leader, the reason it's important to develop that is the leader has to make a million decisions. And when you get 10 times bigger, you're making 10 times more decisions. And they like come at you like signs on the highway, voom, voom, voom, voom. Cars on the highway. And so it's hard to make all the right decisions yourself. And so when I got to the point, and I think this is part of the evolution of a company, like you said, it came to you turn loose on some of these things. I got to the point where I decided it was my job to spot the things we needed. I could see problems appear on the horizon because I was in front of everybody. You know, I was overall, I could see that we were going to need this. We kept growing, we were going to need that, we were going to need this, that the other. And I would go to the management team and say, hey, guess what? We're doing great, but we're getting ready to run off the cliff if we don't find another way around. So, and so. So you guys want to run off the cliff or does somebody want to come up with a solution for this? And they would always come up with great ideas and I would not have to divert myself to come up with it. I just kind of evaluate what they came up with and they always pushed their ideas. When it came to the implementation stage, it was always more energy put into implementing something they had come up with rather than me. Moses, come down from the mountain with the Ten Commandments, and here's what we're going to do, guys, you know, it's that, you know, that was my idea. But if they came up with it, their idea, and they had more energy and ownership of making it work. And so, you know, I know you've gone through that process yourself and see that played out.

Yeah, for sure. And like you said, it's when a problem is there, if you're the one that always is creating the solution, you're never building that solution creation muscle in your management. And then like you said, and I liked your analogy, then pretty soon you're throwing yourself on every grenade. You got nothing left and you've drained yourself and your people come to expect it. And then when you get upset or disgruntled about it, they're like, hey, you're the guy, you tell us. But yet when you allow them to get involved in that, like you were saying, they become the guy, their idea, their pride and ownership, you step back. In a way, it goes, you know, I look at our Butcher business. You know, he. I go in there now and I'll put an apron on and. And I'll just go help with what I knew how to do from my college. And people say to me, it went from, yes, I'm the new owner to now, no, I'm an investor, and this is my son's business. People go, I got a question. Because I'm in there maybe six hours a week on a good week, and I'm around and people. And I'm like, whoa.

Good question.

Let me get. Let me get Noah, let me get Wes, let me get. Let me get somebody. I'm not answering those questions, and nor do I want to have the answer to them. So, you know, I want you guys. I want you to throw to $4 million a year in sales, and you can figure it out. You know what I'm saying?

Right.

The funny thing, Brian, is, you know, I know you went through this in the beginning. We were the only one who knew anything. We're recruiting all these rookies, and they run. Brian, what about this? Brian, what about this? What about this? And, you know, you knew everything, but you're never going to grow unless you go through the transition to where your people don't think you know anything. You know, it's like, you know, it's just like, well, I don't know. Go ask. What. Call him, whatever. And so the thing is, you do know everything.

Yeah, 100%.

It's like when the rookie runs up and says, brian, what do you do about this? There'll be somebody. You know, you're doing it right when. When you got somebody else on the team. And management said, no, no, no, no, don't ask him. He, you know, so we just had one of our stuttering fool that runs the company. He doesn't know any of the details.

So we just had our best month ever in. In our financial services business. And aums. And new. New aums.

And, you know that's assets under management.

Yes, assets under management.

And. And.

8 of.

How much was that? How much was it?

11 million.

Great. Fantastic. So.

So. So we just. We just. And. And that. That. So six of our top offices. So just quick story on that. So I had a client call, and a friend called me and said, hey, you know, my wife just inherited this money. And I'm like, okay, yeah, I got a guy can take care of that. So I called him up and I facilitated Zoom. It was a friend of ours, Lindley's. Actually a friend of Lindley's and mine and the manager right. He says, the principal. He's the principal branch. He says, yeah, probably. Unless Brian says differently, I'll take it from here. Because he really doesn't have a lot of experience in any of this and doesn't do a lot with this anymore. Like, I'm totally removed from the world and don't even know anything about it, which is the farthest thing from the truth. But to what you just said, it's exactly right.

They don't want.

But they don't.

Yeah, you want them thinking they're propping you up and protecting you from all of this, you know, and that's when you're building a team because it shows you develop that kind of confidence in them and everything.

If you enjoyed what you've heard and are dead serious about finding out for yourself exactly how this works in the real world, I've taken the most valuable business lessons I've learned over 40 years and put them into something for you to watch, go to whiteellumwinning.com webinar now in order to move up as fast as possible. I'm Larry Wydell, and I run the Million Dollar Mastermind. Go, go, go.