The Real Reason New Companies Fail

Every year, thousands of brand new businesses go poof! They vanish not with a bang but with a slow silent fizzle. And here's the thing. Most of it isn't because they ran out of money. Most of it is because they ran out of mojo. You know, energy, momentum. The team gets tired. The vision gets foggy. The fire turns into flickers. And then, the wheels just stop turning. But what if momentum isn't some fluffy motivational word? What if it's a measurable force that you can actually build into your business? And that's what we're going to unpack today on Marc Haine Live. Welcome to this episode of Marc Haine Live. This is where small business owners and entrepreneurs develop new skills to help them create the jaw-dropping, show-stopping experience that their customers and their employees deserve. I am your host, Customer and Employee Experience Strategist Marc Haine. And I'm so glad that you're here tuning in today because my guest for this episode is the Business Momentum Expert, Chip And today, we are going to be diving headfirst into why most businesses don't stall from lack of money but from loss of motion. We're going to unpack how you can apply the laws of physics. Yep, you know, the Newton-style apple dropping on top of your head before you make an awareness. And that'll help you create unstoppable forward movement in your business no matter The size that you're dealing with. My one ask is that if you know somebody who could use this information, please, please, please make sure you share a link to this episode. And for goodness' sake, please make sure that you subscribe to this podcast. We're well on our way to getting to 2,000 subscribers. So, I want to keep the momentum going. So please make sure you subscribe and you become part of our community. I know In my experience that every leader wants growth. But most don't know how to sustain that growth. Maybe you've got great people. You have a killer product. You even have some early wins. But then, the slowdown starts. Things start to get heavy. Forward motion takes more effort and planning feels like guesswork. And the go, go, go, go pace that everybody was on turns into, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, what just happened? So that brings us to our Question of the Day. So, have you ever felt like your business has traction But then, no velocity. That means it's putting along but it's not really picking up the momentum that you need for it to be successful over the long term. I'd love for you to be part of this conversation. Why don't you go ahead and share a link to this episode on your favorite social media platform? Hashtag it #ExperienceLeadership. Put your comments down. I'd love to see you being part of this conversation. You know, for over 40 years, our guest today Chip Higgins has been on the front lines of business leadership and growth. From community banks to executive leadership in regional institutions, Chip helped shape nationally recognized brands by putting entrepreneurs at the center of the strategy. Now, as a coach, author, and business momentum expert, he helps small business owners just like you translate vision into velocity. Chip, welcome to the show! It is so great to have you.

It's great to be here, Marc. Thank you so much for having me today.

Yeah, I can't wait to get into it. But before we get too deep into today's topic, could you tell people a little bit about what your business is, who you're serving, and how you're serving them?

Yeah, my business now is called BizX LLC. And we do coaching for small business owners that conforms to the momentum principle that everybody learned in high school— mass times velocity. And It kind of grew out of all the experiences I had dealing directly with business owners and just a lot of time in the banking industry trying to figure out how to help them the most. And I think toward the end of my career, I just realized that the financing was a very small part of it. And there was a lot more to it to maintain true momentum in that sense. And I really built a practice around that and ultimately wrote a book on it.

I love that. I think it's really, really cool that even in today's economy that we have more entrepreneurship and more small businesses than ever before. Like, it just seems like people are just going from kind of the normal kind of work model into, hey, I want to start my own business. But the statistics are really dismal. As strong as these businesses start, precious few of them will be in operation 2 years from now, let alone 5 years from now. So, why is this happening?

I think that energy has a lot to do with it. I think to some degree, that first scaling point can be really difficult for people. But as I went through my career in dealing with different people, and Michael Gerber said it in The E-Myth, there's this entrepreneurial seizure that you're going to get started. And sometimes, there's a lot of heat and energy around that, but it's not sustainable. I liked some of the things that I read on your website. It's about service to others. And if you haven't really refined why this is so important to solve this particular problem for a group of people, it's like eating a candy bar. It's just not a sustainable thing.

Yeah.

If you replace service to others with, I love the ego-driven idea of being a business owner, or I want to make money, neither one are very sustainable. So, I think at the very outset, just sorting through intention, the intention that you have for your work and the intention for the people that you want to help gives you a real leg up on this journey that is going to require so much energy. You know, what I say in the book is like the distance between where you are and this vision you have of helping people creates this vibrational field that is energy. And when you get really committed to doing that and you're thinking about it all the time, that's the energy field that you're tapping into. And you've got to have enough for yourself and for a lot of other people. You know, when you hire people, like you're the main energy source for a while till people figure out exactly what you're doing.

Yeah.

how they can play a role in it. And so, you start dealing with things like building culture. A lot of people can find a product or service and engineer it on their own. They can start to find the market. And ultimately, they end up having to hire people. And I don't know the exact physics term, but there's waste in a distribution system that energy kind of flies off if it's not controlled along a conduit. Yeah.

Sure.

And I like to call that really the culture that you build is the energy grid for your business. And I think that is, it looks like you're hiring people, but it's really not just making the hire, but how are they connected to the mission and vision and to your original intent? Do they understand it and do they share it? So, I mean, it's just a really big deal on the front end to get all that right and the values that you plan to live into. And I think, again, some people are just very hasty. Like, in Gerber's book, he just talks about being a technician and how easy it is to jump out of being a technical person that knows how to do something, trying to figure out how to do it on their own. And as he says in the book, sometimes it's easier to just keep working for somebody that's a little nicer than your last boss. It's not really a calling to be in the market.

Yeah.

You know, just to think about the differentiation of what you're doing. You know, is it really a call that there's a need in the market that nobody else is filling that you're uniquely poised to do? And, you know, it's been one of the most troubling things, you know, in my business career over 40 years. That number has never changed. You know, it's still 50% of businesses are going to fail in the first 5 years. It's been that way for decades.

Yeah.

I think that's my passion is like, is there something that I can say or do that improves that to 25% or 30%? You know, I don't know exactly where the number is. But you think about the benefit to society of businesses working well and the wealth creation that comes from it. It's worth spending time on. That's kind of where I'm coming from on it.

Well, and it's interesting. Just before we got on the call, I mentioned that I worked for a short time in economic development. And I got to peek into different businesses. And it was interesting. And I talk about this in my book. I talk about, you walk into a business and you just look around and you could feel it's lost its way.

Can't you?

Right? And you walk in and you go, this business has been around for so long. And yet, what's happening, right? And so, you have to your point, you have businesses that fail. But you also have businesses that are kind of like hanging on. Just to— and then, when you see the owners, they look depleted, burnt out, sad, right? Like I remember talking to one business owner and he came out and I'm looking around the business and I said, so how's business? He goes, oh, you know, oh, the market is so tough. Oh, life is so hard. And he just— everything is so negative. And I sat down with a cup of coffee with him and I said, can you take me back to when you first opened? And he started his business when he was like 20-something, right? And he bought his first truck and he went out into farm fields to fix equipment. And you could see all of a sudden that the light came back in his eyes.

Right.

And he started getting— you could see the passion. And it's like, what happened in the last 15, 20 years that that went out, right? And so, part of the momentum thing is how do we keep this fire burning? And how do we know actually How do we know that we're losing that fire?

Yeah, that's interesting. When I was writing the book, I had a number of people— I'd tell people what I was working on and they're like, this sounds really neat. Are you going to have anything there about sustaining momentum? And the topics are all related. And as you just said, that primary source of energy has got to be tangible for every person that's working there. And You find that even with your best energy and a great culture, if you haven't found in every person that works for you that congruence that brings their own energy to it, there's absolutely no way you're ever going to make it.

Yeah.

I mean, you're not going to make it because I said this almost every time that I speak is I had this topic on my mind for a while. I had a very interesting physics teacher in high school. She's kind of unforgettable. I wasn't that great at physics, but I remembered certain concepts. And this whole thing about momentum was bugging me. And I was just finally like, you know, I think it might be a book, but I better check with somebody first, you know? So, I talked to this friend of mine who's a physicist. You know, he's a Caltech-trained physicist. And on this topic of energy, one of the things that came out of that conversation I've never forgotten is This is such a simple equation for momentum, the mass times velocity. But, you know, there's all kinds of equations in physics, and there's one that has to do with speed and its relation to energy. And it's a very direct relationship, as we would suspect. To go faster, you need energy, but it's actually a squared relationship. So, you know, if you want to go—

The faster you go, the more energy you need to keep that momentum going.

Yeah. If you want to go twice as fast, you need 4 times the energy. And so, as a business owner, The Energy Bus is a great book. I mean, I thoroughly enjoyed that book. I don't know that there's a business book that has really done justice to this idea of how important energy is in all of its forms and all of its sources, where you find it within yourself and your leadership team if you have partners. But with every single person that you hire, can you make them as committed to the change that you're aspiring to make in people's lives as you are? And when they are, do you have enough latitude and empowerment with them in their own creativity for them to be themselves in that moment of delivering that? You know, I think that is really a huge energy field when people feel empowered in their own creative spirit and their own strengths and personality type that they're doing things. It's like, I don't know if it's nervous energy or just that creative spirit, but like when you're told like, I want something, I want you to do something and I'm not necessarily going to tell you exactly how to do it. I just, this is the big goal.

Right.

We want these people to be, their lives to be changed and them to be really excited about working with us. And I've seen amazing things happen with that even in the banking industry. Something is stayed is banking. I worked at one bank and everybody's just on fire. I mean, it's a great place to work. People feel valued and feel like they— you can't ever give everybody complete latitude for all decisions in the company. I mean, it's just not realistic.

Right.

But you can always empower people at some level. And as they grow into it and you trust them, give them more. So, I just think energy is such a huge thing. And I say it all the time. I've seen so many businesses that they say they ran out of money. But they ran out of energy way before they ran out of the money. And this just seems to be like a really interesting—

They probably had to use money to compensate for the lack of energy that they had, right?

Right, yeah.

And so, just from how you're describing it, this really does sound like this is a multi-layered kind of issue. In that, you not only need the energy from your leadership side, but you also need the wherefore-all to be able to inspire and kind of stoke the energy in your team to keep that going. Or for people.

Exactly. But I would also refine that a little bit, Marc, to say for people to find that energy within themselves. I've been in many work environments where There's an agitation from leadership that feels like energy. But it's not really positive energy. There's some showmanship involved. There's a dinner. There's an event. But going back to what you said earlier, that intensity around what people are doing and how well they're doing it for that particular customer. It really can't be replaced by an event or this kind of experience that people are having. A Band-Aid.

So, I call them Band-Aids when you decide, oh, let's have a Customer Appreciation Day.

Right. Yeah, right. Yeah. And then, I think just switching gears off of energy, I do think this is a really important topic about that first few years in business.

Mm-hmm.

But the whole idea of velocity underlying that is the idea of direction. You know, there's got to be, you know, a vector in physics has a direction, a distance, and a speed. And, you know, what I find with a lot of, you know, kind of new starting business owners is the pressure of performance for revenue drives them in whatever direction possible to get revenue and they just want more of it. And the reality is that businesses have to move toward a target, a particular customer, a particular type of customer that they have designed their product or service to serve them uniquely. And if If you have a product that you're just trying to sell to anybody and it's not really your target market, there's a lot of disappointment in that. You end up cutting your price. You end up doing a lot of things that are not healthy for the business. But I just encourage people—

Yeah, sorry, Chip. Those conditions happen I think when we're trying to chase this silver bullet, right? If you're a welder, like I know one welder, when 2018 came with the energy crisis and he had to start laying off people. He went from a 25-man shop down to a 3-man shop. And then, he realized he had to keep 2. He wanted to keep people employed. And so, he kind of pivoted and started making fire pits. He started doing etched fire pits. So, he would like do a deer and he'd do like all these kind of like nature scenes on these fire pits. And they became so popular that I actually became a spin-off to his business. But that is kind of a successful picture of kind of diversifying one's business. All too often though, I see businesses are trying to catch up to competition or they see something and they go, oh geez! Well, we— and I see this in the restaurants more than anything. My background's hospitality. So, a hammer always sees a nail, right? But in hospitality is a perfect example. It's like, oh yeah, we have a hamburger shop. And it's like, oh, somebody's doing a Thai bowl. We better do Thai bowls. And, oh, we better do pizza. Chinese food. Oh, we better buy a wok, right? And before you know it, you're trying to be everything to everybody.

Right. And there's something about your background experience, your knowledge, the people that you know that makes you uniquely suited for some market that that you have to be completely dedicated to even when it feels like you're not making progress. And once you found that niche and people say, well, I've never had the Wagyu burger before, you know, like there's so much stuff you could do with the burger to start with, you know, like—

Right.

What type of beef, what type of whatever. And you realize like that's a form of expertise in that, that people that love hamburgers are going to come find your place every time, you know, it's just And so, just moving from that idea more to here's a set of people that I want 25% of these people doing business with me within 2 to 3 years and just staying on that consistently. Because what you find is like that vision that you have becomes tangible and the energy that people have toward the differentiated offering that you're bringing to them. And I think that your world of customer experience, I mean, Yeah. That's an energy source. It's like anytime you're bonding with somebody in an authentic way, there's a chemical reaction to that that fuels all your future. That one success will fuel many more successes when you see it. But if you're selling to somebody that's ho-hum about burgers, yeah, that's a good burger but I really like bowls. It's a little disappointing.

You know what? I get myself a bowl and I put the burger in the bowl. We'll call it a North American Thai bowl.

You know what I'm saying? Like, you know, whether it's your employees you're bonding with or your customers, you know, there's—

Yeah.

It's a part of building mass the way we bond with each other. But the side benefit is that there's always in a chemical bonding reaction like that, there's always energy in it.

Yes.

And it's palpable. I mean, when you're with someone and you know you're connecting and there's a bond, I mean, there's a different energy field than Being at a networking event with 500 people, it's just a different thing.

So, for the people tuning in, like I get a sense that a lack of momentum in any business is not intentional, right? So, for the people who kind of start their business up, what are the signs? Are there any early warning signs that the business is running out of energy? That things are lapping, lapsing?

Well, I think first of all, There's this linear energy, which is what I wrote my book around because I didn't want it to be too complicated. It's kind of like this vector of, I'm going to own this market and I'm going to move in this direction, all that type of thing. But there's also a thing called angular momentum, which is about circles and it's spinning. And sometimes, that can be wasteful. I say in my book, there used to be a pinwheel firework when I was a kid. It wasn't very fun because it just spun around and It was bright colors. It didn't ever explode, but it was kind of like— it felt like it was wasted energy. But these feedback loops that we have with customers aren't made up. I think you will notice if you're in an environment where you're committed to some type of angular momentum and regular feedback loops with your clients, you will notice it in survey verbatims, especially in some of your scores. You'll notice that maybe the customer was not as excited about dealing with the new person that you hired versus you. And maybe, there's an energy transmission problem. Like, they still don't understand like why this person is really important and why. So, I think there are a lot of early warning indicators that there's like many things in business, whether a small business actually takes it on because it seems like it's just a nice-to-have when it's a have-to-have. And customer surveys are not something you do after 5 years. Like, it's got to be right away. Like, you need to be learning from people all the time and engaging with them. And I love a good customer panel, a good roundtable with people, kind of hear their verbatim, read their body language, all that type of thing. But I mean, you really need to do it all the time and just be so voracious about that data that you really can't wait to consume it every day to make sure that energy level is right. I mean, it's got to be there. Unfortunately, if you don't have the early sign, what you're going to find is that your revenues have plateaued and you're behind. You're behind the competition. These startups that have been on like what the key drivers are with these customers, like they're beating you every day by being so aware of what that segment really wants. And when you're flatlined, that's when You might as well say you're in decline. If you're flat, you really haven't innovated at a level that allows you to start growing again. So, it's like, I mean, it's just really a crunch time. You know, when you see that your revenues have been the same for the last 2 or 3 years, effectively, you've been asleep at the wheel.

Yeah.

And I want to go back to one thing that you said before I forget it. I'm getting old, Marc. If I don't say this now, I'll forget it. And I think it's an important point that we need to come back to. What you said about the welder, you got to be going back to like, what do we consider big business practices that small businesses never adopt because they think that, well, that's just for a big business. Having a rolling 3-year plan is not a crazy idea for a small business. Like every single year, you're crafting what the next 3 years are going to look like. And for me, that story about that welder is a perfect example of what happens in a 3-year process ought to be that you're thinking about how you leverage up your capabilities to serve more and more markets. And the excitement around satisfying new clients is very invigorating for a business. There's a lot of energy involved in it. And guess what? There's a lot of revenue involved in it. So, that fire pit example that you gave is something that could have easily come out of a collaboration for that owner with the 25 employees instead of the 2 employees. And it would have been a ramp instead of a bouncing experience where you hit bottom and ricocheted back up. It ought to be like this plateau of smart investments in your core competencies going forward. And that's just, I mean, to me, it's like, Why not pull the team together once a year, get everybody a one-page business plan, and get the ideas and just see if anybody's got anything? Like, you know what we do. You know what we're good at. Let's just put all the ideas on the table. I'm not smarter than all of you put together. I mean, I think that's the humility part of leadership is like trusting people.

Like, they have ideas. I was just going to say that. I was just going to say that. How much of it when we're thinking about doing what we do, How much of it is things like parking our egos, parking our, you know, gaining humility? Because a lot of what we talk about, especially like when you get feedback, I can't tell you. I mean, I used to do secret shopping. And I can't tell you how upset people would get when they got the secret shopping report that just listed observations.

Yeah.

Right? And they'd come up with excuses. They get mad over stuff. Why do I care there's fingerprints on the window? That's just an observation. If you're getting upset over that, that's a you problem. It's not— all they did was just— that's an observation. It's not a judgment.

That's right.

And so, but a lot of times, I think as owners, I don't know if it's a pride thing. But it really does feel like our ego and our identity get checked into what we think we're accomplishing. And then, when somebody turns around and says, well, I went to get my tire changed and they made me wait for 35 minutes just to put tires on. And then, people are like, well, don't they understand how many customers we have? Don't they understand? Don't they? And it's like, people don't care. They have expectations.

Yeah, right.

But yet, we jump into, we get the feedback. But then, all we do is kind of blame the customers.

Yeah, I just think that leadership development, I mean, that's another real inflection point for small business owners. I think A lot, you know, I'd say the majority of small business owners, unless they came out of the military, have probably not had any formal leadership training.

Right.

And especially with businesses that appear to be working, they're in it for a year or two. They know they have something. And there's this choke point with the owner about, I've got to hire somebody, but I don't really feel ready. Number one.

This is my business.

I'm the boss. And then, when you hire, it's like, So hard to let go. I mean, I have had so many business owners tell me that that delegation of responsibility was the hardest thing that they had ever done. And they're still, as much as they appreciate good ideas coming from younger people and new people, like in the back of their mind, they still feel like that they're the expert in every part of the business. You know, even after the delegation, even after new ideas have been generated, it's kind of like, you know, they're still kind of, you know, the brainchild of everything and want to maintain that. And the reality is that you can't grow past your leadership ability. I mean, this is a big John— I'm on the John Maxwell team of speakers and coaches and all this stuff. But it's something John said that I think is very true that you can't grow past your leadership ability. So, you've got someone that started a business. They're a year or two into it. There's probably 4 different markets they could go to. They need 3 or 4 people. They feel totally awkward about leading or managing anybody. They keep putting it off and that's it.

Yeah.

It's like they never— they're trying to get all that without hiring other people. So, I just think an investment in leadership ability is such a huge payoff for people. And it's another thing that it's not a big corporate idea, it affects us at our own personal level. Like, can we lead ourselves? Let's just start with you.

Well, and to your point, in Montreal, I had 3 restaurants and I was an entrepreneur. And we just did the best we could as a small business owner. When I came, when I moved to Alberta, I got hired by a casino that had a marketing manager, a finance manager, an HR manager, And it kind of like opened up my whole world because these were all things like as a business owner, I was just doing the best I could. I did what made sense. But without these resources around me, like I grew by leaps and bounds by having an HR manager, a marketing manager, a finance person, being able to refer to them and their knowledge. And it's like, oh my goodness! We need like small business people need to get this. We need to find some way to give these people, right? Because we don't know it all. And To your point, we hang our ego on this that we're the brainchild for this. And then, we refuse to say, well, no, I know my business. Nobody else knows my business.

Yeah, humility is such a powerful, powerful thing. I just really believe in that. And really for small business owners today, I mean, I feel like a lot of what's going on is universal. And I don't know in the Canadian economy how much this exists. But Where I am, it's like I can't find a discipline that there's not extremely experienced fractional opportunities to get help. It's like even if you don't want to be the leader, like if that scares you to death, I mean, I know fractional CFO people. I know fractional marketing people. I know fractional—

What do you mean?

Just for the audience, could you define what fractional means in this context?

Yeah, this is a seasoned professional in a field of the business world that doesn't work for one specific company. I mean, they're willing to have 10 or 15 clients that they work with. And it's a partner business relationship that gets you to a place in expertise before you have the budget to have a full-time person doing that. And maybe you never even need a full-time person doing it. But the expertise and the quality of ideas that you can get from people like that kind of alleviates that pressure for I've got to lead people. You know, you're really entering into an arm's-length selection process of somebody that gets you, who you are, what you're trying to do. They've probably seen other companies in this industry and they're poised to help. And it's probably a little bit more expensive by the hour but way less expensive on overall like cash flow going out of your business because you're sharing the resource. And I'm just a big believer in that. I'm a big believer in AI and the way it's emerging. I'm still a little bit scared of OpenAI. I don't really understand the magnitude of it. But what I'm finding is more and more closed AI systems that are specifically targeted to a part of business. And whether it's writing emails, if you're not the best communicator, I remember being in a mastermind group one day and this guy was saying that he really got on the AI bandwagon pretty early and he's tested it in a lot of different ways. And one day, he decided to start having it write his emails for him. And about a couple of months in, one of his employees came in the office and smiled. He said, I know what you're doing. So, he's a real driving Type A personality. And he was sending out these emails that were— I don't want to say they're completely poetic, but they were You know, definitely on the squishy side. And he said, well, is there anything wrong with that? And they said, no, I just want you to know what I know what you're doing. And we appreciate a friendlier tone. But I figured it out. And so, I don't think, you know.

And just the learning opportunity from that. That's really interesting. Maybe they want me to be more like my emails.

Right. Maybe I need some coaching. Can you be that person in real life?

Hey.

Whole families thank you.

So, I want to tap into— you mentioned the energy equation. I want to tap more into that as far as being able to create some solutions for the audience if they find that they're in this means of losing energy. And we'll get to that right after this.

Okay.

When the spotlight shines on your business, are customers applauding or yawning? In other words, how is your business performing? Make your business a star with the new book Lights! Camera! Action!, business operational excellence through the lens of live theater by Marc Haine. Marc uses his business and acting experience to help you see your business like a live show so you can create a performance your customers will never forget. Buy Lights! Camera! Action! today at your favorite online retailer or directly at marchaine.com.

Welcome back. I hope you're getting tons of value from our conversation today. As you can tell, Chip and I are super passionate about supporting business owners and businesses just like yours. So, if you are planning a leadership retreat, if you're going needing help at a conference and you need to hire keynote speakers, or you just need somebody to come and help coach you, please check us out. Our link is in the show notes. Check us out. It's the best way for us to use that fractional ability of being able to pop in, help you with something. and be able to help you solve your problems. Having the business momentum expert Chip Higgins on today is brilliant. Chip, why don't you tell us a little bit about your book? You've alluded to it a little bit. But give us a deeper dive into what people can expect with your book.

Yeah. So, I think I mentioned earlier, I became consumed with this idea about whether momentum was a business buzzword or if it really applied. Because I just felt like the simpler, the better. If this has applicability, it's probably the simplest way to think about your business. And so, I had this conversation with a good friend of mine who's a trained physicist and Caltech graduate. And of course, in that conversation, he's very much in the physical world. I don't think he appreciated as he was speaking the import to me from a business perspective of how everything he was saying applied to business. And I think that's the beauty of a universal principle is it does apply to everything. We just happen to see momentum physically a lot more than, you know, in a metaphysical sense of a business. So, that's what I undertook to do. I got partnered up with Forbes Books and it's 8 chapters that breaks down the physics equation of mass times velocity and what that means in business. And as we have spent a lot of our time together today talking about energy, there's a big section on energy at the very front because you can't get to velocity without energy. So, you really need to understand energy before you ever get to velocity. So, we have chapters on velocity in the sense of what is the vector for your business and the idea that it has multiple dimensions. It's not just more customers.

Yeah.

There are financial requirements in any business and there are client experience requirements in any business. And those are goals that often seem at odds with each other that you can't solve all of them at once. But you have to. I mean, that's the bottom line. It's like you got to figure out how to make money doing all of it. Then, we talk about net force, which is the physics principle that there's a lot of other forces out there that are impacting your business that are outside your control, whether that's economic trends or psychographic things in the economy or—

Terrorists!

Regulatory things. These are all things that you have to consider in your planning of, you know, as much as I want to get to this point, like, what is in my face or pushing me off course that I've got to have a plan for dealing with? So, that's the beginning. And then, we start talking about mass. And it's really my favorite part of the book is the mass part because I have this kind of Monty Python and the Holy Grail riddle that you have to solve to kind of get to there, which is how can a small business be massive? And, you know, the idea is that it's got nothing to do with size. It's really about the density and the density of your value proposition to start with, the density of who you are as a person, the experience that you have, the density and, you know, the capabilities of your employees. I mean, everybody that you hire, I mean, are you the Are you the weightiest offering in the market? And, you know, getting into your world, Marc, you know, there are elements that the bonding makes all the difference in how heavy they are. You know, carbon is pencil lead and it's also diamonds. And it has everything, you know, the diamond, the reason it's so hard and valuable is that, you know, the bonding in there is like off the charts compared to a pencil lead. So, there's some really good ideas in there to consider on all of that. And then, of course, we address inertia, which is really a leadership issue that you're going to keep going in the same direction until something changes. And you've got to be the leader that's willing to change and willing to listen to people on the front line and change. And then, just kind of there's a chapter in there on sustaining momentum, which again to me is really about a planning process and A thoughtful alignment to your core. And then, there are 2 chapters at the end. They're kind of plus. They affect momentum but they're not core to the equation, which is friction and leverage. And friction has to do with the fact that we need good friction to move forward. But there's a friction that will burn you up. And we talk a lot about it in a financial sense. But obviously, from a cultural standpoint, it could have the same effect. And leverage is really about what are the things that move your business forward faster than it would without it? What is the lever and competency that you develop that when the opportunity arises, you can pull that lever and make a big quantum leap forward in systems, but also with debt? And coming from my background, there's a lot of attention paid to money and how you fund a business. the relationship between equity and debt. And most importantly, the fact that when you borrow money, don't assume it's all the same. It looks like it's a commodity. But what I say in the book is money assumes the attitudes and preferences of its owner and it behaves differently depending on who you got it from. It's very chameleon-like in that respect in terms of what people expect on their return. And you have to be very, very careful that money is not money. So, That's kind of a quick overview of the book. It's been well received. I've had good results on Amazon. And I think I accomplished the objective that I wanted was bringing something that might seem really esoteric about a momentum physics equation into a reality of a business life that people really understand it and they get it. And that's always been my hope is that it's a framework that you could drop 100 different ideas into that are supportive of momentum. And you can do it in your own way. But don't ever just say the word without understanding what it means. So yeah, that's a good overview of the book.

Well, I look forward to reading it because I think it's brilliant. I like when we put different lenses on things just like I put the lens of theater on Business Operational Excellence. And you have this idea and putting this lens of physics on businesses as well. For those people who are tuned in, If this is resonating with them, how can they reach you if they want to check in with you or pick your brain, hire you?

Yeah, I'm just at chip.higgins@bizx.com. I'm on LinkedIn under Chip Higgins. The book is on Amazon. It's in audio, Kindle, and hard copy. And I view it as an investment. It's like it's probably $18 right now. You know, for $18, it's a roadmap and you can decide what to do with it. But please, you know, reach out anytime. And the other thing I mentioned, you know, before we got started, one of the things that I'm really excited about is my own AI play in that I've developed an AI-assisted agent for the book that's a thinking partner. So, just imagine being able to talk to me anytime, 24/7 in the context of the book. I'm on a platform called Expert Loop. And the book has been ingested into this AI. It's a closed system. It's not OpenAI. And they've got my book. They've got a lot of my blogs. They've got different ideas. And of course, in the book, one thing I'll say about the book that I tried to do differently is that at the end of every chapter, there's a QR code that takes you to a resource section. So, there's probably 25 planning tools available with that QR code that come with the book. But the AI agent is also informed about what those tools are, making recommendations of what you can work on. So, I go back to, you know, is it readily accessible? Is it affordable for people to get help in beating the statistic of, you know, failing in the first 5 years? You know, it's like, that's what I'm consumed by is like, you know, what drives that? Is it too expensive to get help? Is it Too hard to find people when you need them, and I think the combination of the book and this agent, which I call Business on Demand, I think just gives people a framework. It's been amazing the feedback on that agent that I've had. I've had people engage with the agent for an hour.

Wow!

I mean, an hour back and forth, and you know what it it it asks questions, and it also provides a pathway forward on whatever topic it is. You know, like let's just think about what you need to do. You know, here here are some things that you can do, and we'll even help you write email. I did one test with it one time. I was trying to plan an offsite. I pretended I was a law firm and I was planning an offsite. And at the end, it was like, well, do you have a template to track roles and responsibilities? And I said, no, you know, I've never done this before. I was kind of playing the total, the total needy devil's advocate or whatever. And it sent me a template instantaneously.

Wow!

Task, person, deadline, whatever.

Yeah.

And so, um, I'm just super excited about that part of it, Marc. And it's Physics On Demand, and hopefully we can get that link in your, in your show notes.

We'll put it in the show notes so people could try it. Is that a cost-per-use service?

Yeah, it's a subscriber deal. You know, I have it priced at $24.99 a month, and we, we have a special, you know, promo going right now at $14.99.

That's if they mention hearing it on Marc Haine Live.

Yeah, there's, I mean, there's a promo code that's out there that you can use to get the $14.99 a month. But, you know, I honestly, you know, I feel like I've been consumed with the value proposition and the offer and like, and I just keep coming back to having 24/7 access to basically an expert at $14.99 a month seems Like a no-brainer. Oh, I don't want to say that. It's kind of like telling a credit guy there's no risk in a deal. You know, it's like I wouldn't say it's a no-brainer.

Well, you know, but to your point though, giving people the resource is the no-brainer part. Whether or not people use it is the brainer part.

Yeah, that's been great. Yeah, I like to provide industry reports to people and I've had experiences of my own with it where in a session, you could feed in an article or even like one of these industry reports and just start having an adult conversation with an expert about what you're seeing, all the forces that are out there, the opportunities, what you're planning to do about it. So, I'm really excited about that. I love it.

I look forward to checking it out. It sounds like a lot of fun.

Yeah, I'll send you a freebie, Marc, for having me on. You can test it.

Thank you so much.

Be right back, Ed.

So, for the people tuning in, if there was supposed to be a first step, if people see that they are victim to this energy depletion that they're seeing, that they're maybe year 1.5, year 2, year 2.5, and things aren't going. They see the ship is slowing down. What is the very next step they should do to start turning this tide?

Well, I have a very brief diagnostic that's available on my website, just www.bizx.com. It's called the Energy Check. So, there's 5 questions for the 3 areas that we talked about are, what's your personal energy and vibrational field for what you're trying to accomplish? What is your system for distributing that energy to other people? And what is your capacity or ability to tap into other people's dreams in the context of the role that you have them playing at your company? So, like the individual field. So, I would take that assessment and just do some thinking about where does it seem off? Like, is my intention for change not big enough to give me the energy? Is the cultural part a challenge for me? And I think what you'll find in the book, like there are very easy answers to some of these without going to a lot of trouble like vision boards. Like if you don't have a complete vision that you can share with other people, I mean, it's so easy to do vision boards in this digital age where like you can grab all the pieces of the future of what it looks like after you've been successful doing your business. And if that doesn't give you energy, just be honest about it. Just say, I'm not excited. I don't know how I'll get somebody else excited. And then, on the culture part, this is in the book. I'm being a little bit of a spoiler with this. But there are so many basic things that you can do to start building a culture in a business. I think that word can be a little daunting to people. They feel like this is for companies with 1,000 employees. And I tell the story in the book that I was at a bank that was having some culture problems.

Yeah.

And they hired a company called Sen Delaney to come in and do some fixing basically. So, Larry Sen, I think, was the primary author of the book. And it's called The Mood Elevator. And it was as simple as like, can everybody kind of assess their mood in a given day? And with the ground floor of the elevator is curious and interested. And maybe the top floor, I can't remember all the stages, but let's say the top floor is highly creative and the basement, the lowest level of the parking garage is depressed. And all you have to do is guide people like, can we all stay curious and interested every day? Nonjudgmental.

Yep.

I mean, that'll change your culture overnight. I mean, just that one intention without hiring a lot of people. And I recommend that book to everybody. I mean, I think that book, Crucial Conversations, I mean, there's so many books, just picking up one book on something can change everything and you're capable of implementing it. Yeah. Yeah. So, please come get the energy check. It's free. We got a lot of free resources on bizx.com and just start thinking about, you know, I'm just one that I see things in the physical world and somehow there's always a connection to whatever's going on. And I would just pay attention to things that You see that they're stuck and think about, well, how does that apply to my business? Like, I don't have enough fuel in the tank or my tires are flat or whatever it is. You know, you can get to the bottom of it and start moving forward. And engaging people, I think, is when you've run out of ideas. I guarantee you there's so many more good ideas in the people that you work with and your partners about where you can head and start pivoting or changing the mission or whatever. But it's all doable.

Yeah.

And just work in the framework.

And let, yeah, give other people in your operation the chance to be a CEO for a day and see what happens. Yes. For the people who are, you know, my fear when people get new information like this is that we band-aid. I do know that we typically looking for that, you know, oh, we got to do the low-hanging fruit. And so, are there any pitfalls or cautionaries we should be aware of if we want to instigate a change?

Well, I do think that it's explicit in the book about how difficult business is that we're solving for things, so many things simultaneously. And I used to— I had a CEO who was just an amazing man. He's really had a wonderful career. And we used to get in these planning sessions with him. And Everybody'd be throwing their ideas up and be saying, well, we need to do this. We need to do that. And there'd always be some rookie in the back that would say, well, what's the most important thing we need to do? And he would turn around and say, they're all important. Every single one is important. That's your job is to figure out how we do all of them. And so, that's a statement I'd make to somebody that thinks it's going to be one thing. I think what is great about my book is it's systematic. You see the whole system that has to operate for the equation to work. You know, and, you know, you can be a pinwheel and have a lot of energy and spin around and do nothing. That will look good for a while, but you're not going to go anywhere. And it all fits together. And that's what I would say is just anybody that's in business, if you think you're solving for sales and that's all you're worried about, you're not going to last very long. There's so much There's so much more to be solved for. And I just love what your mission is, honestly. I mean, I just— the client experience, employee experience are so central to everything after the idea. You know, it's like the idea and the courage to start. I mean, it really drives so much. And somehow, we still get consumed by the whiz-bang that we developed. We kind of forget.

Yeah.

About staying in touch with people.

It's so interesting. Today, we've talked about so much wrapped around your concepts today. Could you remind everybody one more time how they can get a hold of you? Just because I think this is a big topic.

Yeah, my email is chip.higgins@bizzics.com. And please email me. I'm very accessible. I love talking to people. You can go to the BizX website at www.bizx.com. And I can't repeat what the URL is to the BizX On Demand landing page. But just look for it in the notes with Marc. I'll send it to Marc.

I'll put it in our notes.

Yeah.

Yeah. Any of these, please reach out on LinkedIn. Let's get connected. Anybody that wants to connect, I mean, That's the most important thing in life is having relationships. And I really can't have enough. So, please reach out and let's get to know each other.

This has been brilliant. Do you have any last thoughts about what we've been talking about today, Chip?

I think I just go back to what my mission is. I just struggle with— I've been around so many great successes in banking. I was involved with the Kinko's people early on here in Tennessee and like, you know, watching them get acquired by FedEx. And you see these, these ideas, they grow into gargantuan things, you know, and it's like the excitement of all that is tempered by the pain that I've experienced on the other end, you know, loans that are going into workout, personal difficulties, divorces, you know, relationship problems and, you know, bankruptcies. And, you know, I've had a couple of people take their own life in the middle of a financial hardship, which is, you know, just probably the most difficult thing that you can deal with. So, what I'm focused on is like beat the odds. It shouldn't be a 50-50 proposition. If your heart's in the right place, you know, let's make it a very slim chance that you're not going to make it by just doing the right planning and preparation and making sure that you're ready for it. And There's a lot of resources along the way that we can get you to make sure you make it everything it can be.

Chip, thank you so much for doing this with us today. This has been brilliant. It's been such an absolute drinking out of a fire hose.

Marc, it's been my honor.

Thank you so much. Thankfully, we have your book. So, you know, part of the challenge with doing episodes—

I don't want to oversell it, Marc.

No, no. But here's the thing is part of the challenge and we talked about this before we went live. You know, the purpose of this show is to give people a context of here's a big expensive problem. Here's a way to solve it. Now, when we know, oh, I didn't know anything about this. Now, I know I don't know anything about this. Now, I know there's a resource out there.

Chip's book.

Momentum is real. It's real.

And so, I think it's brilliant. So, thank you so much for serving us today. It's been absolutely brilliant.

Well, thank you, Marc. I really appreciate the time and wish everybody the best. Enjoy the journey!

Thank you very much! Why don't you let me know if this was of value to you? As always, my offer stands. If you would like 30 minutes of my time to brainstorm your business with you and your team, feel free to book yourself on my online calendar. The link is in the show notes. And remember, look up Chip's links because you want to get the link for the AI to try that out, to check it out. Maybe it'll be there to help you. And please make sure you book time with me if you need some help. Always reaching out to an outside party can give you insights you didn't know was out there. And so, getting onto a free 30-minute discovery call, clarity call, whatever you want to call it, it can really make the difference for you. So, it would be my absolute honor to be of service to you. So, why don't you at the same time, if you're here, why don't you leave a comment or review about this episode? I'd love to get your feedback. Was this of value to you? And while you're at it, please make sure that you subscribe to this podcast. It's The only way that I'll know that this has been of value to you and that you're going to follow me and that you're going to consume more information. I've been doing this since March 2020 and I'm doing it just for you. I don't get paid for this. This is something I just passion point. I just love doing it. It has been so great being here with you today. Thanks for joining me. My name is Marc Haine. I hope you stay safe.

Bye-bye!

Stay healthy and I hope you dare to be the exception. Bye for now.