MBA2038 Guest Teacher – Barry Moltz – How to Make the Changes You Know You Need to Make in your Business

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Teacher Barry Moltz for about eight years now. I met him through some mutual speakers that speak at events. I first met him at Michael Port's heroic public speaking event. And from that moment I thought, this guy's pretty interesting. He's a small business expert and he specializes in helping businesses get unstuck. Listen, there's no shame in being stuck in your business, being stuck between decisions, plateauing. But it's your responsibility to get some help and to change things for your business. This is why we brought on Barry Moltz today. He's the author of seven books and is the host of Chicago's radio show, the Small Business Radio show over on AM820. When you're stuck in your business, unfortunately you're stuck, meaning you don't do anything. You're just kind of like a deer in the headlights. You don't make changes because you're afraid that what those changes will mean. But that's no way to move forward. So I'm going to pass it on to Barry to explain why is it so hard to make changes in your business and what are some of the steps to take to move forward and make those changes. Also, hang on to the end of the episode so you can learn how you can get Barry's book for free that says latest book Change Masters. I know I'm going to be picking up a copy so I'm going to hand it over to Barry now. But I'll be back to wrap up today's episode and give my takeaways. But for now, take it away, Barry.

Hello everybody, it is Barry Moltz and I want to thank you for joining me today because we're talking about how to make the changes you know, you got to make in your business. And if you ever really want to think about why you have to make changes, you Just have to look at the last two years, what happened with COVID 19. You can also look at examples like Blockbuster and Netflix and Taxi and Uber, how a lot of the industry leaders didn't see changes coming and therefore they got aced out. I remember when I was growing my various businesses, I had to make some changes in my very first business. I thought if I had a good process and I instructed my staff, well, they could be successful. I didn't realize the kind of investment I would have to make to hire the best people to. Because being successful in business is not really about ideas, it's about the execution of those ideas. And that means you need to be able to have the funds to hire the best people. In my second business, who I found actually the partners in the classified section of the Chicago Tribune, I learned again that businesses are really about people, that it's really about having common ground with your partners. And just because you're interested in the same subject, if you don't change and evolve how you work together, you're never going to be successful. Charles Darwin says that it's not the strongest species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the most responsive to change. And of course, my favorite change quote is the only constant is change by Herculetias back way in the Greek times. I've already mentioned that change is coming to every industry. I ask you, would you rather be Uber or the taxi business? Would you rather been Blockbuster or Netflix? We have to understand that disruption, innovation really are two sides of the same coin. If you're the dominant player, any change is disruption. And if you're the maverick in the industry, any change really is an innovation. So many small business owners really do want to change. So why is it so hard? One of the reasons I started speaking on this topic is that I would go into many small businesses who asked me for help. They say they had to change their business. Perhaps they had increased their sales. So I'd sit down and have long conversations with the owner about what the problem was and the changes they had to make. We'd lay out a detailed plan and then almost nothing would happen. So I got to think, what goes inside people's body and mind that makes change so hard? This really shouldn't be a surprise to anybody because we all grew up in families where it's really difficult to change someone's opinion. And I remember during the Academy Awards when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock, there were people really on both sides to say what was right and wrong. And the following day it was very difficult to Change people's minds. That's because we have confirmation bias. We only believe any evidence that's out there that overlaps facts and evidence with our beliefs. Now, I'm not trying to convince you that you need to make changes in your business. If you're satisfied in what you're doing, by all means, keep doing it. What I want to talk to you about is how you can actually make the changes you already know you need to make. So why is change so hard for us? I believe that people only change when they're in enough pain. If there's not enough pain, people are unlikely to change. Also with change, it brings more work or people have to work harder. Plus, with change, I'm going into the unknown. And there's an old expression that goes, it's better the devil I know than the devil I don't know. And especially for small business owners, we want control and we only really trust ourselves. And so we make a change, we give up some of that control, and finally, change is difficult because many times we confuse the intention to change which actually making the change itself. In addition to all of this, your biology actually fights change. Your brain is a pattern making machine, and it craves familiarity and longevity of habits. And when things are familiar, you get a little bit of a dopamine hit and it almost excites you. So you want to keep things where they are for your brain to survive. In that way, many times your expectations become your reality. And, and we have to understand, as we age, our brains get lazy and it's harder to change. Think about when you travel to the office. We typically go to the office the exact same route every single day, whether it's by car or public transportation. And many people have said that when they start off with the office, all of a sudden they're there. They don't know how they got there. And this is your brain really working through patterns and, and really craving that familiarity. The other problem with change, it produces a change curve. Usually there's denial and resistance, and then you go through this valley of chaos before you get to exploration and commitment. Many successful leaders are able to change because the pain is so great. They can't stay where they are. They have no choice. They're also able to change because the odds of it working out are at least equal to the benefits in their mind. And they figure if they're wrong, it doesn't eliminate their chance of trying a different path and succeeding a second or third time. When people make changes, there's the myth that they made these Huge changes and giant leaps across the abyss. And that couldn't be farther from the truth. Most changes happen in very small steps and a series of patient, iterative steps to actually get big results. Now in my book, Change how to actually make the changes you know you gotta make, I lay out a 20 step process for change. And I'm just gonna give you a peek into the first part of that and give you an example about how you can make any change happen in your organization. So the first thing you need to ask yourself is what is the change you want to make? Be as specific as possible. So, for example, maybe the change I want to make is I need to figure out how to get more sales prospects. The next question you ask yourself is how do you do the thing you want to change now? It's important to know how you're doing things now to measure the change for the future. So in this particular example, for my sales prospects, I mostly rely on referrals and I don't do anything proactive. The next question is, why do I want to make this change? This is a very important question. Because if you don't have a good reason or you're not in enough pain, you're not going to make that change. So in this case, I need to have more prospects because I need more sales because I can't pay all my bills. Next question is, what will happen if you do not make this change? Again, tapping into why make this change and what's the pain? In this particular example, if I don't make enough profit, I'm not going to be able to pay myself and all the bills that go along with that. The next question is, what inspired you to make this change? Studies have shown that people will not make changes if the pressure comes in from the outside. Change has definitely come from inwardly inspired. So what is really driving you to make that change? In this particular example, I'm being up at night worrying about money, so I need more prospects. The next question is, what makes you uncomfortable about making this change? For most people, the answer is that I'll fail, that I think I'll be in a worse place than in a better place if I make this change. And then who's the one person that can support the change? It's very important in the change process to have someone support you whether you succeed or fail. In my case, it's going to be my mentor, Riva. And then what action can they take to support you in this change? The most important thing they can do is to hold you accountable to your commitments and check on with you every single week. Finally, the next part of making a change is to think about the first, smallest specific step you can take to start on that change. Sometimes changes are way too big. We have to think about what is the tedious thing we can do to set us on the path of that change. So in this example of wanting to get more sales leads, the first part I can take is to write down what pain my my business solves and who has the money to solve it because that will tell me who I'm targeting to make calls to. Your best chance for change is focusing on something that is alleviating great pain for you and make yourself believe or really believe it's your inspiring idea. Remember small patient iterative steps. There's no giant leaps. That's not the way change works. Make sure that you have an accountability mentor to help you and track your progress. And when you do make progress, give yourself some kind of reward. For me, my go to is always french fries. When you're scoping these small changes, pick something that is can be seen the results in seven to 10 days and make sure that you're trying to affect changes in your teams and they have to understand the personal benefit or the benefit of doing their job better in order to affect that change. So where do you start making changes? It goes back to how do you need an elephant? And of course the answer is one bite at a time. But in order to do this you must take action. You can't really talk about it. Start from the beginning. Make patient small steps and you can make the changes and that you know you got to make in your business. If I can help any way, you can go to my website@www.barrymoltz.com or you can email me at barryoltz if you want to continue learning about this, please. You can get a free copy of my new book Change Masters if you go to www.barrymolz.com changemasters freebook now back to Omar.

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For me, this episode was a real gut check because I'm currently going through some changes, some tough changes that we're making good things, great innovations, improvements to our business but it's not easy. If this episode's got you thinking. Pick up Barry's book. He's speaking at a very popular event, so if you go to that link, you have a chance to win a copy of his book for free. That link again is barrymoltz.com/changemakers free hyphen Book. When I listen to Barry's lesson and learned about his new book, I went on over to Amazon immediately and bought it just because I know it's going to be gold. I know that it's going to help me now and in the future. Now, one of the things that Barry mentions that I find really true is you have to not only make changes, but you have to convince everybody involved that these changes are for the good because it's going to take some work. You have to get people on board. I'm talking about your teammates. I'm talking about if you have investors. I'm talking about co founders or partners. You got to sell them on this change and show them it's going to be worth it. This is especially true if things are actually going well. Most of the time when things are going well, people don't want to make changes. They don't rock the boat. They'll throw the line. If it ain't broken, don't try to fix it. But if you're not constantly improving and trying to improve even more, you're asking for trouble. You will get gobbled up by the competition or the market will shift under your feet. So make sure you take the time to talk to your team, to convince them, to show them the way, to show them the benefits of this change. Show them how you're going to support them throughout the way. And most team members are okay with it as long as you have a plan and you're taking steps towards that plan. Thanks so much for listening to the 100 MBA show. If you love what you hear, hit subscribe so you don't miss an episode. We're on every podcast, app, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, Apple Podcasts. You name it, we're on it. So smash that follow or subscribe button right now. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. The only thing that's guaranteed in life and in business is change. Things will change whether you initiate it or not. So you might as well be in control. You might as well be the person that is initiating and controlling and planning out that change. Even the simplest products don't just do the same thing over and over for years. They have to change. They have to innovate. Take the classic hershey bar. It's just a chocolate bar, right? Super simple. But they changed and innovated in their marketing and the way they present their product, whether it's in bar form or chocolate syrup or miniatures where they put some almonds in it. The point here is, is that they don't just stick to the old tried and true because you will be amazing and have no competition for about three seconds. Okay? You got to continue to strive to be amazing and be number one. Thanks so much for listening to the $100 NBA show. I'll check you in tomorrow's episode where I answer the question, can you grow a business with no paid ads? Tune in tomorrow for that one. I'll see you then. Take care.

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