Open AI... Its bureaucratic GARBAGE! - Episode 046

Happy Thanksgiving.

Let's go.

I'll probably post. I'll try to post this today. So recording the day before Thanksgiving. So Happy Thanksgiving to everyone listening. You got any Thanksgiving plans?

Start with the hard hitting topics.

Not really. We got a ton of stuff for the team for Thanksgiving. I like doing a lot of Thanksgiving because Christmas gets diluted. I kind of feel like everyone's getting gifts, you're buying gifts. Everyone's already in that mode.

So Christmas bonuses.

Yeah, everything like that. So it's just like I like to index heavier on Thanksgiving because like I beat the rush, baby. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Get in. And, and, and so yeah, we're doing a big Black Friday sale this year. Last year we kind of dipped our toe in it. We're using conference. But this year, like we have some crazy awesome stuff we're doing this weekend. So I'm looking forward to that and seeing how that does.

Are you pre selling conference tickets for next year?

No, because we don't know the dates yet. So we gotta be careful. I just don't want someone to have a bad experience. So we aren't doing conference tickets but we're doing it for long care web design, all the courses and for copilot and like the deals are like crazy, like really, really, really solid. Yeah. So I'm looking forward to it.

I love it. Other thing I wanted to start the podcast with. I should have said this on the last episode, but Happy anniversary. We're officially a year in.

Into what?

The podcast.

Okay.

Happy anniversary. Yeah, yeah, we started. The first episode we posted was like early November of last year.

Oh, nice.

So that's kind of wild.

Cool. And I'm like all these anniversaries are getting mixed.

So.

Yeah, my admin has my admin reach out to you. She needs to reach out to you. You're the one person we still need your birthday from.

It's fine.

You're hard when it's pinned down because no one's like your direct report anyways.

I'm an. I'm. I'm an island guy.

I'm getting all of everyone's work anniversary and their birthday on my calendar.

Y.

It's like every day I can send them a message and like it'll take me like two seconds a day.

Yep.

I can reach. Stay in contact with everyone that way since I don't really have as much one on one. So. Yeah, work anniversaries. I was like, where are we going with that?

First year podcast anniversary.

Cool.

Any. Any. Any thoughts on that?

A year in it's kind of like everything else I'm still doing right now. It's like, I don't really have any projections where it should be at. So, like, I'm just going to keep doing this and, like, we'll keep going from there.

Yeah, that's kind of how I feel. I feel like I've learned a lot about just communication.

It's very. It's.

It's a lot harder to do a podcast than I thought. If you want it to be informed, informative, and have some value, it's easy to put a mic and just riff and have a conversation. But, you know, like, I'm trying to research articles and, like, come up with. With good points or good topics of discussion, and it's harder than I thought.

The best part about, for me right now is the fact that you and I don't get to communicate at all, basically until the day of the pod. So, like, it'll be way better just. I keep saying it, but, like, it'll be so much better when we're at the new headquarters. Like, have us all together. I can just bop in and say hello. Same thing for you. But like, right now, like, literally, like, around the pod, is when we schedule our meetings together and talk about, like, life and the world. So it's good. I enjoyed that part. Good. For now. That has been the high, the highlight down the road if followers come. Fantastic. Yeah.

So I wanted to ask, like, on. On a more personal level. Cause you mentioned you now have an administrative assistant. I don't know if that's her official title, but we'll go with that. And you've also very bougie.

I hate. I hate bringing it up. I don't like talking about it well. But my life has significantly improved since happening here.

Well, same thing. We were at the bank the other day and they asked me my job title, and I was like, what do I. Like what do I say? So I just said business consultant. And it just feels so bougie to say therapist. I was like, I don't know what to say, but I wanted to ask, like, personally, you know, you.

You just.

I. I've seen some changes. You got the administrative assistant. You're drinking the jocko. Go. So what do you. What are you getting into personally?

You know, I'm shifted everything back. So I played. So it's funny. Getting ready for conference. I was like, really trying to dial things in. I wanted to be, like, the best in top shape, like, everything for conference. Not because I want to look at either. Yeah, I just want to perform really well.

So totally.

I started like waking up at 3 o' clock so that my time zones when I went over to Louisville was, was fine because getting on it, getting on Stage at say 7am is 4am our time. So if you're not like ready for that, you could be a little bit off.

Yep.

So I didn't want that. I wanted to like have my eating schedule dialed in and everything. So I was starting to wake up at like 3:00'. Clock. Well, now I'm like, I love this new schedule. Yeah, I wake up every day between three and four now without an alarm. If I sleep in, it's only till 5. Like on the weekends I can't. I still don't sleep past 5am and it's really, really, I really enjoying it. Nice. So that's been probably the biggest shift. So now I come into the office usually around 7, leave around 5.

On average, and then go home and I can still walk on my treadmill for a couple hours. So it's been really good. That's like the biggest change, honestly. Yes, I have the admin assistant. Yes, I have coaching now and all this other stuff. But I think what I'm beginning to realize is like, if I don't make these changes, we're going to plateau around 10 million in revenue, which I get. I'm not complaining. I'm very grateful. But like, I really think people like you, Chuck, Liz and now like a host of other people coming up, there will be no spot for them to grow into if I don't keep expanding the companies. And so it's a little bit financially pressure because like, it's like, oh man, we redline all the time because we keep growing and growing and growing. But like, I don't want you guys going stagnant and I'll lose great people if like four or five years they're in the same thing. Yeah. And so.

It'S good pressure because I know in the long run the businesses will be better because of it. But I just want to be able to create positions for people to grow into and be able to retain people if I can. So, yeah, it just requires change. We're going to go from 10 million to 100 million and like, I will have to completely change the way I think about business. My schedule specifically.

Yeah.

And I don't like some elements of it. I'm still coping with some elements of like, not, not. It's not that you don't care less, but you can't care because you can only care so much. For so many things in one day. And so, but I enjoy it. I'm, I'm living my peak life right now. Good.

I like it. I, we can lean into this a little bit. We don't talk about the details, but we had a leadership team meeting where it was just, just you, Liz, Chuck and myself. And I love those meetings. One, because it's inspiring to get on the same page with the people you're working with, you're in the trenches with on a daily basis, but you don't see them. Right. I know you're over here doing your thing, Chuck's over there, Liz is there. And then we all kind of get together and it's like, what's going on? Let's get on the same page. And I, I kind of pushed you a little bit and I just said like, well, what do I prioritize right now? But because, and as you summarized it, which I thought was a very simple way to summarize, but accurate was it's like I have a bunch of part time jobs. So it's tough, like as we grow the company to realize that you wear a lot of hats, but then you have to step back and go, okay, but what's going to accelerate the company most and where do I best fit into that acceleration plan? And so it's gonna be fun. We're gonna have to figure it out.

Yeah.

So I don't know how much you wanna talk about that, but yeah, like.

The biggest thing I'm not struggling with, I don't struggle with it. But like the thing that I am, I'm aware of is that like I really do push my direct reports. Like probably too hard, some would say. And like I asked too much of them and so I try to be careful not to. But I also realize that like part of being in an organization where like your job title changes every year or two and like we're constantly growing, expanding, it requires growth and expansion at the personal level. Right. And so like the way that I'm expecting myself to change and like completely redevelop the way I think about leadership and businesses over the next couple of years in order for people to. Because this is the thing I want my current team to be able to grow with me. Yeah. So that as we grow from 10 million to 100 million, I don't have to go get executives from other teams that have experience in that low. I'd rather take my current team and because their personal growth is fast enough, they're able to rise with the company. Because if the company is doubling and tripling. That requires the leadership to also be doubling and tripling their skill set. And if the or not the company will outgrow the leadership team and you'll have to hire outside executives. And so that's when you hear people like even Alex Hormozi for example, he'll be like, you know, just hire great people, like pay them way a bunch of money and you bring them in and you get all their talent. I see the value of that. But there's also, there's other people that say like when you do that you just like demotivated everyone below them because they realize they're not going to get those spots. So ideally, if everyone's on the same quest of personal growth and development and like changing the way they think and like challenging themselves, they'll gain the muscle to be able to grow with the company fast enough where that's not required. And that's the thing I'm most, I don't say scared about, but like the thing that I like as much as I know I'm pushing really hard. It's like I want these people to stay with like stay up with the company and like still be my direct reports. And.

I know that's not comfortable and I don't like putting people uncomfortable necessarily, but that's kind of what I've been thinking about.

Yeah, that's. I like it. I think one, one thing you said to me, this was like, this was a while ago. So obviously things have changed. The business has grown substantially. I would say you said this over a year ago and it was kind of a.