ATTN: Business Owners! (comparison leads to depression)

Hey, everyone, it's Mike Andes, and you're listening to the Business Boot Camp podcast. Yes, I'm in a different place today. The audio is not going to be as good. You'll definitely want to watch the video on this one. But instead of giving you an analogy, I want to actually show you what I was thinking about when we talk about comparing yourselves to other people and other business owners and the damage it can do to you. Before we get to today's show, though, a big thank you. Today's sponsor, which is Gusto, Gusto's really stepped up and supported the show, and for another 10 months, they're going to be the sponsor, and I really appreciate them. If you haven't already, go to gusto.combootcamp. you can try out their software completely free for 90 days, and you can do direct deposits and get all your reports for your employees done very, very seamlessly and easy. They have a mobile app. Check it out. Today, go to gusto.combootcamp. now you're asking yourself, why am I out next to the Pacific Ocean right now talking on my phone? Probably for the podcast? Not the best of audio, but why am I doing that? And it's because when I think about comparing yourself to other people, I think of it very much like the sandbar that I'm standing on right now. So right now I'm standing on this sandbar. I came out here about 15 minutes ago and walked in from the shore, which is over there. But you can see now I've been here for 15 minutes, the tide has come in, and now I got this water coming in between me and the shore, a good 8 inches or so of water. And I'm now stuck on the sandbar, which is really not much escape. And I think that is the kind of the same way when it comes to comparing yourselves to other people. And this is very dangerous in the age that we live in with social media and everyone's comparing themselves to other people, comparing their looks, comparing their wealth, comparing their success, comparing the size of their business, comparing everything. And social media has magnified that, in my opinion. The comparisons that we try to make with other people and where we kind of fit in the totem pole of success or fit in the totem pole of our business acumen. And I think that's really dangerous. I think it's really dangerous from a mental health standpoint, and I think it's really dangerous for your success, because when I came here, I walked out here, and I was allured out to the ocean here, but Because I was so focused on seeing this amazing body of water, this incredible, you know, massive icon, this ocean. Because of that I was drawn out here. I am now cut off from going back to land, getting stuff done, getting work done, working for myself, getting things accomplished myself. And what I find so often with social media and for people that are comparing themselves with people on social media or comparing yourself to a competitor or family member or another entrepreneur, the people that do that, what happens is you get so allured by the beauty of what they're doing and you get drawn out into what they're doing and you forget that like opportunity is passing, time is passing and now I'm cut off from getting my own stuff done, I'm cut off from getting my own success, getting my own piece of getting stuff done. And, and now I'm stuck here, I'm gonna have to crawl across a bunch of water. I'm not gonna get that on camera. But I think when it comes to comparing yourselves in the entrepreneurial community, it's very, very dangerous because it's become so accessible. With social media, for example, like the reason I'm kind of making this too is because I know this is gonna happen more and more. Even in a week or so when I start doing more and more content and showing more and more my life and day to day what I'm doing, I know more and more people are gonna compare themselves to me. They're going to the negative and the positive. Some people are going to think it's so great and amazing and if they compare themselves too much, they're going to become depressed because, oh, I'm not growing my business as fast or I can't do that the same way, or like, I can't get the employees, I can't do this. And then there's going to be other people, of course, that are like, oh, you're horrible and you could do it so much better. And like, there's obviously a double edged sword with sharing your life online. But what I'm more concerned about is actually the people who watch and emulate and they see my ocean and they forget that they've got to go back to shore and get stuff done themselves. You know, they get so drawn into other people's success and they forget that underneath that body of water all the thing that I'm attracted to, the beauty of it below that is a bunch of seaweed and rocks and like ugly stuff. And I think when we start comparing ourselves to other entrepreneurs, our competitors, other business owners, we really run the risk of Just seeing the positive, like I look across this ocean attracted me out here. It looks beautiful, but I can't see everything below it. And when it comes to comparing yourselves to others, you might see all the beautiful things and the growth and, you know, my business or anyone else's business that you might think is so great and wonderful, and you're comparing yourself to and making yourself feel bad because you're not up to spec or growing the size or making as much money or have as big of a house or whatever it might be. And you're failing to see that everyone has dirty laundry, everyone has seaweed and broken shells. And you know, look at this, like, all this stuff is hidden. All this junk is hidden out in the ocean. And when you look at other people's businesses, you don't know their cash flow. You don't know how much, how profitable they are. You don't know what their personal life is like and the issues that they're facing mentally. And you know, the reason this kind of came up in my mind is a couple days ago I was talking to one of our franchisees at Augusta Lawn Care and they were comparing themselves to another franchisee and saying, like, man, I wish I had like the big jobs and like making so much money. And they don't get, they don't see all the problems and the struggles and the issues that that person is going through. And I think it has a lot to do with the fact like, in general, most people do not share the weaknesses of their business online. They share the positives, they show the good. And I've seen it time and time again, even the landscaping community, as I've become more involved with those that are online showing all the good stuff that they're going through, their businesses and the great marketing pieces and the big equipment and the big jobs they're getting. And they don't show, like, they don't show what's underneath the surface. They don't show the long hours, they don't show the, the times when you can't make payroll. They don't show the times when you start second guessing yourself and making mistakes and you lose money. And so I just encourage you, like, don't compare yourselves. Others don't get drawn into other people's successes, so much so that it cuts you off from where you need to be, where you should be, out stuff done and chasing your own success, building it for yourself. And you've got to realize that everyone's motives and objectives and goals are different in life. Like, someone might be trying to be a billionaire, you better believe that they better be working 16 hours a day and going after every opportunity and just like killing it. But if that's not your, if that's not your goal, don't compare yourself to that. Like, don't compare. If you want to have work, life, balance and a family. Like, you should not be trying to outwork the guy that's out there working 16 hours a day trying to become a billionaire. You got to realize that your goals are aligned differently and that your work schedule and the size of your business and the growth and your profitability is going to be a completely different trajectory and a completely different lifestyle. So this is kind of inspired by two things. Number one, like I said, seeing people compare themselves to other people without knowing what's actually going on down underneath, below all the water in the business of that person, that is their competitor, their friend, their family member, the other entrepreneur that they look up to or think is so great. And secondly, as in the next week starting, I'll be having Josh full time as a photographer and a videographer following me around, creating more content. And people are going to get to know me a lot more. They're going to know my businesses, the financial of those businesses, and they're going to critique it. Some people, some people, the part I'm actually more worried about because the critique park is just part of it. Like, I don't really care, but like, the part I'm actually most concerned about is that people see success and they start comparing themselves to it. Like, oh, well, Mike is young and he's building this business and I should too. Like, it's not even logical to think that way.

And what it's going to do is it's going to draw you out to the ocean. And before you know it, you're so involved in that and the beauty of it on top, on the surface, that it pulls you away from the thing that you should be doing. You should be working, you should be out doing your own thing. And yeah, it's great for inspiration. Like, that's why you come down to the ocean. You get inspired, you'll see far away. And like, for me, I like going in the notion simply due to the fact I can look across the ocean. I can see way, way out in the distance. And it almost like is a cognitive thing to start thinking about the future and looking into the future of the businesses and all that sort of thing. This is why I love to think out next to an ocean or across a mountain range out in the Pacific Northwest. Here.

And that's what I hope to do when I do share more about my businesses and share what I'm doing more on a day to day level and showing more behind the scenes of my life, is that you can be inspired. You can look across the ocean, you can see the good things, you can be like, man, that's inspiring, that's awesome. But then go back and do your thing. Do you, there's no one else that can do you the way you do. Like, don't be drawn in by someone else's success and think that somehow that there's scarcity involved, this is what it creates is like, man, if that person's going out and getting, if my competitor is growing their business, that means like number one, I should be, and number two, they're taking something away from me. And I think that mindset of scarcity will hold you back when in reality you really want to have a mentality of abundance. Like, hey, there's a lot of customers out there, there's great employees out there, there's great customers out there and I'm gonna go get mine, right? When you see someone else's success, instead of thinking like, man, they don't deserve it, or like I should be doing that, or like that somehow they're taking away from your success. Like you gotta have an abundant mindset and as if they can do it, I can do it. And it should inspire you. It shouldn't make you feel depressed, like, oh, I'm not there yet. You know, I don't have that level of success, I don't have that number of employees. Feels like I'm just churning my wheels. What you didn't see is that in order for this ocean to get here, there's massive amounts of tides. Like you got a magnetic pool from the moon pulling hundreds and millions of gallons to make this tide come in and out and create this beach. And what you don't see in your competitor or in that person, you're trying to emulate the person that you are admiring or think that they are so good and you're comparing yourself to is the massive amount of work and time and effort that went into creating that beautiful thing you're now admiring. And to think that it's just going to come up overnight that you are expecting yourselves to be producing at that same level when you haven't had an amount of experience or you haven't had.

The trials and the tribulations of growing a business like they have, it's not really logical. And so I'd encourage you to do the takeaway from the day. Don't be drawn in by other people's successes. Don't compare yourself to that. Don't get so wrapped up in their successes that you forget to go back and do the work yourself. And remember, don't have a scarcity mindset where if someone else, your competitor, someone else, you know, myself is winning, that somehow it takes away from you. Look across their ocean, look across their success and be inspired by what they're doing. Get back to work. Make sure you do. You listen to Mike Andy on the Business Bootcamp podcast. I hope this little live episode from the beach helps someone. I think I'll look back at it in like a few years once I have shown more and more of my life and the channel begins to grow and we really start focusing on social media and really growing the personal brand of what I'm doing that I'll look back on this and point back to someone, do a recall in a few years and be like, don't forget this episode. So thank you so much everyone. I really support your, I really appreciate your support. Those of you have been here for a couple years, few years. I really think that in the next couple years what will happen with all the social media stuff that we are doing, we will grow, become bigger.

I really appreciate everyone that's just been there from the beginning supporting each other, supporting my channel and supporting what we're trying to do for the landscape industry, Whether it be landscapebusinesscourse.com, augusta Lawn Care Services, just trying to help as many business owners as we can. And I think that's why, you know, I'm able to support, you know, bring on Josh full time now. The goal is to get as much content into small business owners hands as possible. Give them the tools and the resources and education to build and grow their businesses to the size that they need to sustain the lifestyle they want. And so hopefully that helps someone out there. And I hope that we can continue to provide valuable content in the future. I will not forget when I had 1,000, 2,000 and 3,000 subscribers. Do I think it'll grow? Do I think it'll become a lot bigger? Yeah. But we will not forget where we came from. Thanks everyone. Take care.