Episode 111: Winning at Business and Life with Ken Wentworth

This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast, where business leaders share their insights. It is 6 questions in 7 minutes because successful business leaders are busy and rarely have more time to spare. So let's get to it. In a few sentences, question number 1, please tell me who you are and what you do.

My name is Ken Wentworth. A lot of people just call me Mr. Biz. I think they really don't actually know what my name is, which I guess is kind of a good thing in branding, but maybe in some way not good. I'm a two-time bestselling author. I've written two books, business-related books, nonfiction, How to Be a Cashflow Pro and Pathway to Profits. I'm the host of my own radio show, Mr. Biz Radio. We've been doing that for almost 4 years now. I'm a 6-time world record holder. And I only mentioned that as a little bit of foreshadowing about something I'm going to mention a little later when we talk. And I'm an on-demand CFO. So what that means is I help business owners operate their businesses more profitably and more efficiently.

Ken, it's so great to have you on the show, and I'm glad you could fit us in with all those things going on. Question number 2: What's the best thing about working in your industry?

Uh, the best thing for me, it's, it's kind of unique for, for what I do, is I first of all, I get to work with all different types of industries and niches. So So that's one of the things I love about my job, that no day is the same, no client engagement is the same, they're all different. I really love that. And being able to help people with my consulting, with my On Demand CFO work, to be able to save jobs, create jobs. And a lot of times, as you know, small businesses are very family-oriented a lot of times. And so you've got the owner and then several family members that work. So if that business doesn't do well, it could really have a detrimental impact on the entire family. Being able to work with them and really eliminate some of those frustrations. Maybe they're really good at the widgets or the service they provide, but they don't have as much experience on the business side. That's where I could come in and really help. And the intangible benefits for what I do, I just can't describe. It's just amazing. I absolutely love what I do.

Oh, I love it. I, I hear the passion in your voice, so it's, it's great to hear that. Question number 3: I have a fictitious book with all the answers for business.

What's a catchy cover you got there, Professor Pete Alexander?

Show it again. I mean, because people— it's— I get my third grade, uh, drawing out of it. What chapter would you think most companies should read?

Uh, easy one for me. Um, actually it's Cash Flow. Um, and I'll, I'll explain that just a little bit. So without cash, you don't have a business, number one. Now some people might say, well geez, revenue is important, you got to have revenue. Of course that's critically important, but There are plenty of businesses that have had a lot of revenue and still failed because they didn't manage their cash flow. So really, really important. I would also add on there that— so cash flow, I would say, is the most important chapter. I got to throw in 1A and 1B, and that would be budgeting and pricing, because those, those are literally my 3 pillars of financial success that I work with every single business on. We start with cash flow, we go on budgeting. You have to have a budget. If you don't want to have a budget, I can't work with you. It's a deal breaker. That's how important they are. And then pricing. Pricing's so important. I call it the silent business killer. A lot of businesses have products or services they have— I call it the silent business killer because they don't realize that they're actually losing money on that particular product and they're selling it like hotcakes and they don't understand why they're having cash flow problems, they're not making money. And that's why. So it's critically, critically important.

And yeah, I can just imagine they don't understand that they're losing money on every single product. They blow it out as fast as they can, and that means that their money is just going out the door faster than they can keep up.

Yeah, absolutely.

Question number 4: other than the generic work harder, have a great attitude, and care for customers, what advice or insight would you give to other business leaders?

Yeah, I mean, again, this is another easy one. I've spoken with this about a lot, and, uh, that's why I kind of mentioned my, uh, 6 world records, because I wanted to make sure that people understand that I do have a little bit of a reasoning on the why I talk about this, and I have some real-life examples to back it up, but I have this thing I never realized I had a system, so per se, or process. But of course, I had to come up with an acronym for it as I started thinking through it. So I call it SMAC, S-M-A-C. And in short, and I literally give 45 to 60 minute talks about this, so I promise, Professor Pete, I will keep it concise. So SMAC, what does it stand for? The S is start with yes. So any type of goal you have, you have to start with yes. It all deals with mindset. So you have to make sure that what you're passionate about it,. And, and that, and that's what, you know, a lot of times, and you can't see my whole body, but a lot of times when I do this, uh, talk in front of people, I'll ask them, if I told you I hold a world record, what would you think it's in? Of course, and I get a lot of humorous answers because I don't look like a big muscular guy, but it's in, uh, bench pressing. And so people are like, what? And so I talk through a lot of the examples of how that mindset and starting with yes is so important. So that's the S. Um, the M is to model expert behavior. Someone's already been there, right? Even if you're trying to break a world record, you're trying to go beyond what someone else has done, someone's already gone sort of down that path. There's no reason you don't have to recreate the wheel. Find someone who's really good at what you're trying to get good at and reach out to them. Read their book, you know, go out to YouTube, find their videos. There is so much free content out there. And you know, I, when I first became a radio show host I'll tell you, Professor Pete, I did the first show and I listened to it later on that evening and I thought, oh my gosh, this is the most awful thing I've ever heard in my life. I have to get better at this or I gotta stop it. So I literally reached out to, one of my favorite quotes, Steve Jobs, if you don't ask, the answer's always no. I said, what the heck? I reached out to 4 nationally syndicated radio show hosts and said, hey, I just started a show, I'm a rookie, I would love to pick your brain a little bit, you know, blah, blah, blah. Every single one of them got back to me. I ended up on the phone with 2 of them. So it was amazing. Again, these highly successful people were willing to help me because I just simply asked. And a lot of times there's a big story about how Steve Jobs did this when he was first starting out, and he reached out to Bill Hewlett, who, you know, he was 12 or 13, Steve Jobs, and he reached out to Bill Hewlett, who ran Hewlett-Packard. Here's this 12 or 13-year-old kid who did that. Obviously turned out pretty well for him. Right, in the computing world. So that's the M, model expert behavior. The A is creating accountability. This one sounds obvious. And so you can do that personally and really hold yourself accountable. But what I like to do is, I am very transparent about if I have a primary goal I have, I'm very transparent about it. I will share it with any and everybody who asks anything about it, because that creates accountability. Next time I see that person, they're going to say, Ken, how's that goal going? And I don't want to let them down. And that's one of the things I do when I speak about this. I say, who in here likes to let people down? Right? Of course no one does. So creating that accountability with other people in your circle that you interact with pretty often, because now you don't want to let them down and you know that they're going to ask about it. You don't have that awkward conversation. And then so creating that within your circle without actually saying, hey, will you make sure you check in on me and see how I'm doing on this? But one of the other things I use— silly, I got a prop too. I use these little books so you can literally stick them in a, you know, your breast pocket of your shirt here or your pocket of your pants. Um, and I use these, and so I'll put the name of the goal on the front, and then every day I have the day and I have to write down at least 3 things I did that day to get myself closer to that ultimate goal. Because sometimes the goals might be— it might be a 6-week goal, might be a 6-month goal. So how do you keep yourself motivated? And it not only creates that personal accountability— so I know at the end of the day that I have to, you know, write this down and I have to hold myself accountable— but it really comes into effect more so when you have those lulls. We all have the lulls, right? We all have those days where you go, man, we're just not feeling it. What I do is I pick up this book, I flip back 10 pages, and I read 10 pages back. What did I do 10 days ago? And then I look at 9 days and I look at 8 days. Next thing you know, I'm fired up. Because I see all the sacrifices I've already made, and all of a sudden I'm ready to go again. So really important, that accountability. And the last one is what I call the C, is consistent perseverance. There's a great, uh, quote by Babe Ruth, I think probably the greatest baseball player of all time. He said, it is impossible to beat someone who never gives up. It's that proverbial get knocked down 7 times, get up 8. You can't fail if you continue to exhibit consistent perseverance. So I hope I kept that short enough. That's the, that's the shortest version of the 45 to 60 minute talk I give. But super, super important and massively powerful.

Yeah. And I love, love how you talked about each one. It's great. And it's an easy to consume acronym, that SMAC. I love it. Absolutely love it. Question number 5. What other business leader like yourself would you like to acknowledge and invite to be on my podcast?

Yeah, I can think of two guys right off the top of my head. Jason Case, who I've worked with for several years now. Fantastic guy in the digital space, and a guy by the name of Kenneth G. Hasty, Ken Hasty, another phenomenal guy. He's more in the sales, sales and growth space, but both phenomenal guys, and I think they'd be really good guests on the show.

Perfect, I'll reach out to both of them. Thank you for the referrals. And our final question, question number 6, please tell me about your first job.

First job, Now, Professor Pete, this is going to put me on the spot a little bit, and it's going to date me for sure, if you can't tell by my gray hair here. But my first job, I was a paper delivery boy. A lot of people listening are going, what, delivered what, paper, plain paper? A newspaper delivery boy. That was my very first job. I was, I think I was 12, and I wanted a— this is going to date me again— a Commodore 64 computer, and we couldn't afford it. And I'm like, I got to get it. I lived in a very hilly area, so I couldn't just mow lawns like a lot of you know, boys that age would do. My parents wouldn't let me because it's too dangerous. And so I got this paper, paper route, and I played sports. And so I had to fit it in between sports and had to figure out how I was gonna make enough money to get this computer and, and all that kind of stuff. So even back then, I was reverse engineering my goals to get, you know, to achieve them.

I love it. And yeah, I was, I was a paperboy too. That was my first job. And, you know, the Commodore 64, my goodness, that would have been a great computer. I was looking at a TRS-80, I believe. Yeah, I think a 64 was It was after the TRS-80.

Yeah, that was like the next evolution, I think. Yeah. Well, good. I don't feel so bad now. You know exactly what I'm talking about.

So, Ken, thank you so much for being on the show. How can people find you?

They can find me really if you go out and honestly, if you Google Mr. Biz, you'll find me. Mr. Biz Solutions on all the platforms. But if you Google Mr. Biz or on any of the social media platforms, Mr. Biz, I'm confident you'll find me.

Perfect. This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast. For more insights and ideas, please go to LinkedIn, YouTube, YouTube, Facebook, or iTunes and search for the Winning at Business and Life podcast. Thanks for listening.