The Mental Unlock from Laborer to Leader; That Will GROW Your Business

Hey, everyone, it's Mike, and you're listening to the Business Bootcamp podcast. Today, we're going to be talking about the mental switch that is required to be flipped for you to go from small business and actually begin to scale your business in the future. Before we get into today's show, a big thank you. Today's sponsor, which is Gusto and Gusto, actually sent me a note, and they said. They asked me to say this to everyone, saying, While COVID 19 is having an unprecedented impact on the economy, companies like Gusto are still building tools to support. Support your business and your people through the ups and the downs. So if you are new to the show, Gusto is an amazing option for you to be able to pay your employees at a very, very low cost. So right now, if your accounting firm is going under, which I've probably heard of, three this week that have gone under, the accounting firms and wealth management and that sort of world, this is a much cheaper option than usually going with a bookkeeper in person. So check it out. Today, go to gusto.com.

And by doing that, you'll get the next three months for free. So if you're going through kind of a tight time right now, that's somewhere where you can save some money. So check it out. Today, go to gusto.combootcamp now, in light of the coronavirus, I wanted to say thank you for everyone that's emailed me, text me a couple voicemails, just saying, you know, checking in, making sure I was doing okay and I was staying healthy. And so thank you to everyone. And I didn't get back to all of your emails, but I did want to say thank you for checking in and making sure I'm okay. I have a bit of a stuffy nose, but, like, that's. I'm totally fine. I feel much, much stronger. And so, you know, and some of you, making sure that the businesses are doing good and everything. And like, for all of us, this has been an absolute sucker punch to the gut, especially if you're in industries outside of landscaping, which landscapers have it pretty good right now, let's be honest. The reason for that is because we have a high variable cost, in other words, labor. Whereas businesses like my gym that have been shut down, we have a high fixed cost, which is like rent. And if you have a loan or something, those are fixed costs that they don't change. And so that's going to be the companies that are affected so much right now. And restaurants are one of the highest fixed cost Businesses outside of the fact that they are able to lay off their employees and food costs do get reduced. The fact is they're usually shut down so fast, they have a lot of spoilage. So just all that's going on right now, obviously, was it's been hard for us, but we're gonna make it through. Right now, the biggest struggle for me is it's not just my little business now, right? Not as only as the employees and their families. It's now we have 17 locations that call themselves Augusta Lawn Care. And I'm worried about them, their employees and their families. And so it's a lot of responsibility, and it's definitely been a long two weeks, but we're gonna make it through. We're gonna make it through this stronger. You know, literally the day that Washington State got shut down, we started. It was day one of our second location for corporate, about 30, 40 minutes south. And so, yeah, it's just like a really crazy time, and we're gonna come through it stronger. And I believe this for everyone out there, if you're able to get through this, you're gonna have so much more confidence and resiliency and confidence in yourself, your employees, your team. And so, yeah, it's been difficult, but we're gonna come out of this really, really strong. And I'm looking forward to it. Honestly, in every downturn, the people who get through it, the people who learn from it, are the ones who become very successful in the upswing. And if you listen to the last episode, actually is Landscape Business course. I posted a video and the keynote to a keynote that I had almost two years ago, a year and a half ago, I should say, at Landscape Summit. And I talked about the economic downturn and what that would entail and how to prepare for it and what to do during the economic recession. And if you notice, there was one massive flaw in that keynote, and that was the fact that when someone asked a question about how did I. How would I respond about a certain subject? I don't remember, it was in the recession. How would I respond? I had to literally say, if you watch the keynote, you saw me say this. I literally said, I don't really know. I can theorize, but I don't really know because I wasn't to this extent in my business career during 2008. Like 2006, 2007, 2008. I don't really know what it's like to be in this massive recession and massive economic contraction like we're experiencing now, where, regardless of industry, it is Impacting you. It's impacting every person, every state, every industry, every business. And we're all in this together. There is no industry that has not been impacted positively negatively. It just impacted all of us, whether it be our family, whether it be our health, whether it be our businesses, our employees. Like, it's impacted everybody. And so we're gonna come through this, we're gonna come through it stronger. And I really look forward to the future and knowing that it's going to really try and it's going to prove the systems that we've put in place. And so I know that when we come out on the other side of this, we'll be able to be even more firmly rooted and cemented in the systems that we've put in place. And for those that have not put in place because the economic tide has been so strong of positive economic growth. Now, in that tide, like a wave, it comes in everyone's. It's easy to surf in, but it's pretty tough to like paddle against the tide and get it back out. And that's what we're experiencing now right now, like a massive contraction. Everyone has to like kind of get back their bearings. And we've been riding this wave for so long, and so it's gonna make us much, much stronger. And it's going to lead to a lot of people questioning, like, maybe I didn't build my business on the systems that should have. And so I think it's a very positive thing from a business macro standpoint. It's not a good thing from a health standpoint. Like, there's a national universal calamity we're going through right now, and we're not through it yet.

But from a business standpoint, I think it's a good reset for a lot of us to really question, like, how do we build the business? Did we have systems in place? Did we have marketing systems? Do we have employment systems and pay for performance systems? And did we over leverage and do we have actual budgeting and projections that are good? Did we over leverage? These are great questions that some people can kind of got around for the past 10 years because, you know, we've been riding the economic wave of prosperity. And so that's kind of my update on the coronavirus. Thank you all so much for your concern and your emails and nice letters and things like that. I appreciate that. But today that's not what we're talking about today. We're talking about something else because I'm kind of tired in some regard of talking about the coronavirus all the time. And I don't want that to be what this whole show is about. I know some of you have asked me about certain things about what we're doing and all that sort of thing. I'm kind of like stepping away from it. I want to talk about something different, something that's really going to be going to transcend 2020 and is going to impact your business really more than what the micro next few months, even six months might hold in our businesses. All right? And that is the mental switch that must take place for you to start thinking bigger in your business. Now this is what's going to allow you to scale. This is what's gonna allow you to actually grow your business. Whether it be more locations, whether it be just more revenue, whether it be more employees, whether it be more crew members, whether it be more restaurants, or maybe a different business, multiple businesses. Maybe it is allowing you to invest and do something more passive on the side of your business. Whatever your goals are, whatever scaling or getting big or getting the place that you want your business to be at is, is whatever that is doesn't have to be huge. Whatever that number is though, that level of growth that you wanted to get to, it requires this mental switch. All right? And when I think about this, the reason I'm talking about this is what inspired this kind of concept is right now everyone's contracting. A lot of stuff is going bad in the economy. But then you got people like Walmart hiring 150,000 people. You got Costco, you got Amazon, the Amazon looking for 100,000 people to grow in this environment. And I'm not just talking about the fact that those in the grocery industry, obviously, they're gonna do really good at this time. Like, I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about just the mental like thought of hiring 100,000 people. Like, if I told someone to go, most of us today to go out and hire 50 people, we'd be freaking out. Like, that would be like, take us a year to do. Like when you say we're going to hire 100 people, thousand people, do you know how difficult it is, how much logistical operations and training? And you better have systems absolutely, absolutely nailed down in order for that to happen. Like the mental switch to go from us as small business owners freaking out over 50 hires versus someone stepping up to the plate and in the matter of a week making a decision that they need to hire 150 thousand people. That is some. There's a different concept. There's A different mindset that's happening there. And the, the question I have is how do you switch? I'm not so interested in getting to 100,000 and higher. I'll never think about that situation probably in my lifetime. But I'm asking myself, how does someone switch from going from solo themselves? Their own accounting shop, their own restaurant where they do the busing, the back end making of the food and delivery, and they take the check and then they wash the cars. And if they're doing a gas station, they ring people up, then they pump the gas, then they clean up and they're doing everything in their business. How do they go from 1 to 2? How do they go from 2 to 5? How do you make that switch where now you are not just the operator of the business, you are the owner and the CEO and you actually make decisions that are strategic in the business? What's the switch? Cause I feel like that once the switch is on, that's when.

What you can achieve. The limitations are absolutely endless. There is no limit to what you can do once you flip the switch. And I feel like most people, you never flip the switch. Most people say solopreneurs, people that work by themselves or maybe have one or two employees, like the vast majority of small businesses in America is one person. They don't ever have employees. They never create systems that run with that the business can run without them, that if they got sick or they had to have an extended period of time away because of emergency, that the business would fall apart, they would lose clients, that the business would not grow, it would not thrive. And those are systems that must be in place for a business to actually succeed and thrive in times of prosperity, times of economic contraction, and to be able to outlive and outlast the physical presence of the owner, the founder, most of you that I'm talking to. And so there's a switch, There's a definite mind switch that I've been thinking about. Like I don't think we'll ever get to that point where I'm hiring 100,000 people from one week to the next. Don't ever think it will get there. But there's definitely a mind switch that took place probably way back in the first year or two of Amazon where they made that decision. A switch went off in Bezos mind that, hey K, I'm not going to be the one physically packaging these boxes anymore. I've got to hire people and then I've got to focus down the road. No longer am I trying to get Distributors. And no longer am I trying to get product. And then it's like, okay, no longer am I just focusing on E commerce. Now I'm doing that. Like, there was an evolution, but there was a switch in time where someone realized that they can't do it by themselves. And they have to have systems, they have great people, and they've got to rely on other people that might not be as great or phenomenal at their job as they are. Like, I guarantee you, Bezos. Let's just take Bezos, for example, because we're talking about Amazon. I guarantee you Bezos thought he was the best packager on the assembly line when there was one or two employees. Like, he was the fastest, most efficient. But guess what? If you would have stayed there doing the best packager in the world, we would not know what Amazon is today. There has to be that evolution, the switch where Bezos says, okay, I gotta get five people to replace me at this assembly line, even though it's gonna be less efficient in the short term. But I've gotta think bigger. I've gotta start making strategic decisions and start doing more mental work than physical work. There's the switch, all right. And you know, for me, when I started thinking about when that switch happens, I think a lot of times it comes down to when an owner stops thinking in terms of what needs to be done and starts thinking more about the processes of how it's going to be done. And then even at a very macro level, why it should be done. But even more so, like, I think the biggest switch is from what to how that's really the most. People just stay in the what, like, what they do every day. That's all they get stuck in. Like, you know, what I'm gonna do today? And that's all they focus on is, like, the physical creation and manifestation of their product or service. That's what they get wrapped up in, how they're going to do it. They don't think a whole lot about. I think the biggest switch, the biggest really inflection point is when someone goes from always thinking in terms of what needs to be done in the business and. And then they flip to, okay, how is that going to be done? In other words, who is like, who is going to be doing this job? Who is going to and how are they going to. What systems are they going to use, what training, what implementation strategies am I going to give them for them to be successful at the what, the actual manifestation of the product or service, that's the switch I push so Many of you towards. Because usually if you can get from what the physical, like, think about in terms of what needs to be done in your business to how it needs to be done, think about systems and people and processes, usually you can. It's easier to switch from. To go from how to why, which is like the much broader level of why you even exist in terms of your business and the team and why you're doing what you're doing. That's an easier switch, in my opinion, than going from the initial switch, which is from getting wrapped up in what you do every day to actually how you do it. And that's hiring, that's making systems, that's getting great people on the bus, it's firing people. Like, how are you going to do what you do? And I think it's really easy. And this. I fell into this big time. It's very easy to want to jump in and roll up your sleeves and work harder and work longer hours. Like, every great worker, every great achiever has that something built inside them that they are okay with, like, working long hours. They're willing to grind, they're willing to hustle, and that's fine. That's great. That's amazing. That's a great.

Thing to have as an entrepreneur and a small business owner. We have to have that level of grit, determination, and willingness to do whatever it takes. But where that really begins to trip us up, and I throw myself right into this bucket, is when stuff gets hard, difficult, instead of thinking how we can fix it, we just think about what needs to be done and we jump in and we do it all right. And that's okay when you're small, but as you begin to scale and if you actually want to get past the switch and you actually want to start having that mental shift and going towards your scaling the business, I think the hardest thing for me even is, like, for example, when it comes to landscaping, I don't mow lawns. Right now, my time is better spent for the team if I focus on more strategic things. But it does not take away from the fact that the hardest time for me not to be out mowing is when it's, like, raining really hard, when I know people are not feeling well and they're pushing through and they're grinding, or when there's a really hard job. And, like, there's this job we did the past few months, and it was very, very difficult. It was very, very hard. And it was like, just a tough, tough job, and I wasn't there. I never saw Pictures or video. Like, I don't even met the people. Like, I didn't know any of that, but it's still inside of me. It was hard for me not to just want to jump in and get there and help. Right? And I think it's a good thing to have, but it takes a lot of discipline as someone that wants to be able to jump in and fix things, which entrepreneurs. That's what we do. We make our businesses based upon creating solutions to people's problems. That is what's built into our DNA. But if you actually want to scale a business, the ability literally almost has to be taken away from you. The ability to jump in and get stuff done and just roll up your sleeves and like, okay, well, you know what? If no one else is gonna do it, I'm roll up my sleeve and work for the next 24 hours straight and get it done. And there's definitely a level that that has to take place. But there's a definite switch and definite evolution in the life cycle and the lifespan of an entrepreneur and a business. If you're going to actually scale and you've got to get out of that mindset of, like, I'm gonna jump in and do it myself, that's the switch when you're able to not do that anymore. And the reason so many of us, and I'm throwing myself right into this because I do this all the time, the reason so many of us do this is because.

We think and we know we can do it better than anyone else. And I'm not even saying this to be to, you know, lift us, ourselves up as business owners or anything. The bottom line is you probably have done every other. Every single position you're in your company. You have the big picture. You have exactly where every piece of the puzzle is fitting together. And so you are going to be the most efficient. You are going to make the least amount of mistakes. You are going to have the least amount of redos and repairs and callbacks and issues with customers like you are, because you see everything in the business. And so it's very difficult for many of us to realize, okay, this level, this time of my being a business owner, I have to step up to the next level. I have to make a switch. I have to hire. I have to get someone else to take this. I have to delegate. I have to let go of some control. I have to allow someone else to make decisions without me there.

And that's very difficult. And the reason it's difficult is because you could probably do Their job better because you do have all the pieces of the puzzle. You have the ability to step back and see the business in the grand scheme of things. And so in the micro, yes, maybe you can do that one thing better than them. But this is what you have to start thinking about. This is the mental switch we keep talking about here. Eventually, if you just added people that were 80% as good as you, just 80%, not as 100%. Like, if you're 100% and you're looking for people that are 100%, first of all, you're gonna be very disappointed. Number two, if you can just get people that are 80% as proficient as you, 80% have as much knowledge as you, 80% as much industry knowledge or expert or skill or experience. If you just look for 80% of that, if you get enough of those people, eventually they're going to outperform you. And so you just jumping in and doing someone's job is super counterproductive. This is something I've had to learn the hard way. I'm still learning the hard way. I'm getting better at it. But like, I have to learn that, like, I cannot jump in and try to fix problems by adding manual labor. By me going and doing the what, doing the physical, like operational level of a job. I have to focus on the strategy because that is going to help the person. I'm like, I might be trying to help someone, I might be trying to help the management or trying to help the employee by jumping in. But I have to realize I actually do more good by staying in my lane of strategy and focusing on the how and the why. I do them much more good. I'll figure out better systems, better procedures, better ideas that will then make sure that the need for higher executive to jump in is not there. And so these are the things I'm thinking about. And I think it really is a mental unlock. I really truly believe there's a mental unlock that for most small business owners, they have to get past. And that is the switch from laborer to leader. That's a massive switch. When you can go from, I go and I do X, Y and Z. I do tax returns, I do baked goods, I do exercising and workout teaching, I do X, Y and Z. I mow lawns. When you can switch from labor you doing and switch to becoming a leader of the people that implement your how and they implement your why so the what gets done. That is a massive unlock, A massive mental switch. A massive mental unlock that can completely change your business and will absolutely allow it to grow and to scale. I hope that helps someone today. Comment below. Hit the like button if you're watching this on YouTube or on Facebook. And thank you so much for your attention and watching today. I'm Mike Andes. You've been listening to the Business Boot Camp podcast. Until next time, be great because nothing else pay.