How to be a more effective CEO with Byron Morrison

If you're not growing, it can feel like you're dying. And this is why I'm such a big advocate. If you always need mentors in your life, you need coaches who challenge and push you to be bigger. You need mentors who've done what you've done so they can show you the way. You've got to find ways to view it as an investment. If you look at the top performing people in the world, whether it's presidents, athletes, CEOs, they surround themselves with the right support because they know they need people to push them to the goal. It's like elite athletes don't hire coaches after they've won a championship. They get them to help them actually get that when you learn and you develop, then you can provide a better service for your team, for your clients and the people around you, and you grow with them as well.

You know, you've done so much work in what I refer to as helping the inner CEO, which is all the stuff that a CEO is not going to, is not thinking about. And you know, a lot of our content, a lot of times is helping that early stage entrepreneur, right? So they're, they're self motivated, they're self driven, they may or may not have good leadership qualities, they may or may not know how to leverage priorities. They may or may not. And I'm just speaking out of the box for myself. I did all of that stuff wrong, you know. So at the heart of it, what do you think is at the core of building a really strong kind of CEO kind of leadership mentality?

Yeah, you kind of hit the nail on the head there because that's exactly who I was as well. When I started my first business, I was really good at the, the service and delivery, but I was in over my head when it came to running a company. I didn't know how to manage people. I didn't know how to have tough conversation or make big decisions. And that's why I felt so overwhelmed and ineffective in what I was doing. And this is really what I see in the new CEOs who are rising to the occasion. It's uncharted territory for them. They've never done these things. That's why to really become an effective leader, you have to have that awareness of where your shortcomings are. You need to be able to, to take a step back and recognize that these may not be a skill set that you've developed over time and that's okay. But if you don't put yourself in situations to really grow and Hone the skill set. It's only a matter of time before you become the bottleneck in the business. Yeah, yeah.

No, and bottlenecks a good word for it. I know, for example, early ages my leadership, I was not aware of the fact that not everybody was like me, that wanted to work like me, wanted to drive, like me, wanted to talk like me, cared like I did. And that's on the good side. I also wasn't aware that I was probably, I probably had the lowest amount of emotional intelligence early stage, just because of my background. You know, I didn't, I didn't graduate high school and all kinds of stuff. So I'm literally building businesses from the ground up from grit. And I took it and I accidentally in many cases took advantage of some great team members. Completely accidental, totally didn't want to, was not my intent. And as a result, I led them poorly, or I would say I didn't lead them at all, if that makes any sense. I really kind of got stuck in my own way. So with that in mind, if I listen, let's say I'm a fledgling entrepreneur, maybe I've got three to five team members, right. I'm generating some revenue, I've got some traction. What are some key steps I need to come out of the box with to kind of structure my day, kind of structure myself, to give myself a fighting chance?

Yeah. So the first piece of advice I always give to clients is you need to figure out what is what I call your zone of genius, as in where in the business does your time have the greatest impact and what can only be done by you? Because there's a very big difference between being a founder and being a CEO. When you're a founder, you can get away with doing everything. That's the business starts to scale, your focus has to be far more honed in. And this is where so many first time CEOs get in the way because they try and do everything and they stretch themselves too thin and they just get in the way. So you need to figure out, okay, what is your bubble and the key things you're going to take on. And from there start to look at where do you delegate and let go to everyone else. Because if you don't trust your team to step up, you're going to be the blocker that stops them from actually following through. So that's the first thing. You then need to get really defensive with your time. The amount of CEOs I speak to who tell me that they're beyond busy. But then at the End of the week, they look back and they don't actually know what they got done. The reason being is they're stuck in the trenches dealing with reactive problems. So the way I always encourage people to do it is look at your calendar and then think, okay, let's say you need 10 hours a week for high value work, top level strategy and tasks. How do you block off time accordingly to make sure that you can prioritize that and get it done? Then communicate to your team and set the right boundaries. And then the third and final thing I'd advise is setting the right expectations. When you then know what everyone needs to get done, you have to communicate it. This sounds really obvious, but loads of CEOs just assume that people know what they need to get done or that they can read their mind and they know everything going on. You have to clearly communicate, this is what I need from you. This is the outcome you have to chase and then keep people accountable to actually move it forward.

Yeah, no, I think it's, I think that's brilliant. In fact, I would argue that, or not even argue. I would also follow that up with. As a founder, you instinctively are doing everything right. So as a CEO, most people, from what I can see, that are aspiring CEOs, meaning they're, they're, they're in the role because they started the business, or they're in the role because their best friend thought the world of them, or a variety of different reasons, they're not quite ready. In many respects it was, I was probably in business maybe 10 years before I realized that it was my responsibility to go away, if you will, and begin to plan and execute and set the vision or the strategic vision for the year of the company. You know, to give that clarity of who's going to be doing what, how we're going to manage it, what's our growth pattern, etc. Much like you just mentioned, I spent all of my time really honed in and really focused in on how come you're. What do you mean you don't know how to do it? Like, I, I taught myself how to do it. Why aren't you teaching yourself how to do it kind of thing.

Yeah, I. One thing you just shared that I can't stress enough how important it is, is to take that strategic time. Perfect example is there's a guy I'm working with at the moment who, when he came in, he was just all over the place, just rushing around trying to get things done. And one of the most effective things that I got him to do is once every 90 days he hires a wework space and he now goes and he takes and he maps out their next 90 days. He figures out what are their targets, their objectives, the key things that need to move forward. In the time he leaves his phone behind, he's off the grid. So he can just focus and think because then he can take that plan, take it into the business and then allocate time, really set objectives for his team and make sure everyone's on the same page. He's been doing that for the last six months now, two quarters in a row. They've absolutely crushed their revenue goals because he had a clear target to aim for, whereas in the past he was just all over the place hoping for the best. And as you know from how long you've been doing this, hope is not a strategy. It can get you by for long enough, but it's not going to get you to that next level.

Yeah, no, absolutely. In fact, I would say that hope is great when you need a little kick in the pants, but it's not, it's definitely not a plan. You know, I know that. So I've always said that, you know, when I go away to do my strategic vision plans myself, I reestablish what the, what the big vision is. Like, what's our, you know, I think they call it a bhag in certain circles. Big hairy, audacious goal. Like where, where what's your kind of your five year kind of vision? I then talk about a little bit about the mission, like, you know, kind of how we're going to break this down into these different segments. You know, I go into a quasi swot analysis of where we are, where are we today, where are we trying to grow, what's standing in our way. I then will focus on really five key areas. One is kind of me as the entrepreneur. What am I, what am I doing to grow myself to become a continual better leader? And then I'll go into the sales bucket, the fulfillment bucket, the finance bucket, and then what I refer to as the raving fan retention bucket. Is there anything else outside of that, those core items that you can think of that as an aspiring CEO or developing CEO that we really need to focus on?

Yeah. The one thing I would really add in is taking that vision and breaking it down into smaller chunks. I'm a big advocate of working in 90 day sprints. The reason being is while it's great to know where you want to be in five years or a year from now, the reality is so Much can change. Just go back to pre pandemic. People came into the air, set their goals for the year and then the whole world got turned upside down. And in business things change rapidly. There's going to be so many situations that you need to pivot and adapt. And that's why looking too far into the future can actually set you up for failure. And that's why I always encourage people, yes, have that vision, but break it down and think about, okay, knowing that where do I want to be in 90 days? Because the benefit of 90 days is it feels tangible. You can be like, okay, that's where I want to be. How do I then reverse engineer that? What do I then need to track weekly to make sure I'm on the correct path, how to then adjust and pivot and allocate time and really amend it along the way? This is how you can have your own head. Because a lot of the time people set that year vision and then they get overwhelmed. They're like, oh, so many things to do that they just don't take action. So it's really a balancing act of having, okay, that's the bigger aim that we're heading towards. But then how do I look that in a micro level to make sure I'm actually progressing? And then I love the areas that you broke it down in. I think that's going to be very dependent on the business. Sure. You're going to have to take a step back and what are our core values, what are the different areas we're focusing on? And then from there, what metrics do I need to set for all of these different avenues? Make sure we're progressing?

Yeah, no, that's great. You know, I'm curious, do you feel like the CEO's primary objective is to really focus on the macro where the team focuses on the Microsoft.

It'S going to be business dependent. But for the most part, yes. Like this is also where a lot of, because I work with a lot of first time CEOs and this is where they get in their own way here.

Yeah.

Because instead of focusing on the macro, they're working in the business. They're in the day to day and stuck in the weeds and that's where a lot of the time they fail to get the growth that they want. So it's a balancing act and it's really going to come down to what is your Expertise. Like some CEOs will be amazing top level, so they need to be driving strategy. Some will be more onto sales or marketing or product. It's very dependent on the business and that particular founder or CEO skill set. And that goes back to what I said earlier. You have to know your zone of genius. Where are you bringing the most value? And then you build the right team and everything else around that.

Yeah, no, that's brilliant. How would it. All right, so let's talk about. So if it's so important for to the CEO to know their zone of genius, what are steps that they need to take to discover what their zone of genius is? Because at least for me, early stage, right, early stage entrepreneurship, I was very much an operator. I wasn't really focused in or honed in on what my strong suits were or whatever because I was, my hands were in everything. You know. I later discovered that I'm very much, I'm personally much better at the five year vision than the, rather than the five minute activity. I've got to have team members in between basically those, those categories. But I also know a couple of other CEOs that are really, really good from my perspective at operational excellence. Like really being able to put an operation where I consider myself a bit more of a vision. Visioneer or visionary or what do you want to call it? How, how does, how does someone go and discover these, these strengths, if you will, and kind of where they should be operating?

Yes. There's a couple of ways. The first way is just to sit down and take a little bit of time to reflect. Look at the business on the whole, all of the things going on and just ask yourself, where do I have the biggest impact? Where if I put time and energy, do I drive growth? The things where my time is so relevant to what's going on, that'll be the first way. It's just being honest with yourself. Look at the business on the whole, where your value comes from. If you struggle honing it in from that, talk to your team. Like if you've got a really good leadership team around you or staff members, just ask them like, where do you see me bringing the most value to this? Because sometimes you might get insights from different people that they can start filling you in in areas of clarity that you may not recognize. But there is a caveat to that. Just because you're really good at something doesn't mean that it should be done by you. Also got to look at the top level of based on your revenue targets. Like if you could pay someone considerably less to get a task done, then even though you might be really good, and it doesn't mean that something you should be taking on because what you don't do is just as important as what you do do. And then there's the final element as well, is also what you enjoy. Because if you just dive into things that you are really good at but you hate doing, it's only a matter of time before you start to resent it. And you're never going to love every aspect of your role. But I do see some people take it to the extreme where they just narrow it down in tasks that they really don't enjoy doing and they just start hating the business. You've also got to have that little bit of awareness of what excites you and brings energy to your days.

Yeah, no, this. Oh yeah. Awesome. As I'm thinking through this, I'm also thinking about decision making, like setting a CEO or aspiring CEO to make great decisions. Do you have a methodology or a process that you use with your, with your clients that you walk them through and what decisions they should be making versus they shouldn't be making and how do they discern between a good decision and a bad decision?

Yeah. One of my favorite frameworks is always breaking decisions down, looking five steps ahead. Because most people live their life making choices based on in the now that satisfaction, avoiding risk for comfort or pleasure with. When you're running a business, you can't afford to operate that way because when you just make choices based on the short term, often they're going to come at the expense of your long term gain. And that's where you really need to break them down and look at what are the consequences of me taking or not taking this action. Really looking into the future. I'll give you a really good example of this. When I first started my business, I prior 10 years ago, I was at a point where, truth be told, I had no clue what I was doing. Like, I was really good at the service aspect, but I had no clue how to generate sales, close business or. Yeah, yeah. So I was just completely floundering. I Remember I spent 18 months going around in circles and nothing was working. And at the time there was a company I followed who helped businesses exactly like mine. I looked all their testimonials, I was convinced that they could help me get to the next level. I got on the application call with them, went there and they're like it's going to be $10,000 to get help and support. And I was just like at the time I was broke, I was bootstrapping things, like things were not going well. It just seemed like an insurmountable amount of cash. And if I just focused on the problem there and then, it would have seemed like far too big of a risk. So I had to break it down and look five steps ahead. I realized if I didn't do this, continue floundering, I wouldn't make any progress. Chances I'd have to throw in the towel and I'd be back in a job. Whereas I looked the other way and I was like, if I get the help and support I need, I can fix my marketing and sales, I can start generating revenue, I can start making more impact and build the business I want to. I could from there then make a decision based on where I wanted to get to, not on where I was. And then it seemed like more of a risk not to do it than to do it. And I could make a choice from there. And this is how highly effective CEOs make decisions. They always look at the future. Look at Elon Musk as an example. People constantly ridicule his decisions. They're like, he's being an idiot.

He's making such reckless decisions until five years later and he's adding another trillion dollars to his net worth.

Yeah. The reason being is he recognizes that decisions in the short term come with loss and making short term sacrifices. They have a big payoff.

Yeah.

And that's why you always have to look five steps ahead and make calculated decisions, like I said, based on where you want to get to, not just on where you are.

Man. Man, that's good. Yeah. I was just thinking too, as you're trying to, as you're trying to kind of think through those attributes, I was thinking back, how did I get to where I've gotten to currently, and how am I currently trying to get to where I'm headed next? And at the core of it is a mentorship philosophy. It's I am seeking mentorship on a regular basis. And one of the things that you just said that reminds me of that is choosing whether or not to see something as an investment versus an expense. Right. So if you see the chance to work with a high powered CEO or CEO trainer like yourself or something like that, that can help you be super successful in any given niche or market and you see it as an expense, you're not going to come up with the cash. But if you see it as an investment, as a, you know, as, as expecting a 10x return or 100x return on that investment, you'll see it completely differently. What, what role has mentorship played in your development? And then what are you trying to do now with your working with clients and mentoring them?

Yeah. So I wouldn't be where I am today without mentorship. Like it's such a big part of, like I said at the beginning, like I found people who helped me with marketing, with sales. And I also, once my business was growing and I was in over my head as a CEO, I got mentored heavily in leaders, managing people and dealing with all the day to day logistics that are going on. So it's such an important part of growth because if you're not growing, it can feel like you're dying. And this is why I'm such a big advocate. If you always need mentors in your life, you need coaches who challenge and push you to be bigger. You need mentors who've done what you've done so they can show you the way. And you've got to find ways to view it as an investment. If you look at the top performing people in the world, whether it's presidents, athletes, CEOs, they surround themselves with the right support because they know they need people to push them to the goal. It's like elite athletes don't hire coaches after they've won a championship. They get them to help them actually get there. And that's why for me, I'm such a big advocate in investing in people who are going to get you to the next level. Like for me personally, the next big step with my business is I want to launch the speaking side of what we're doing. So something I'm starting to look into now is who are the right mentors for me who are going to teach me that aspect. It's something that I've done bits of before, but it's not a skill set that I have honed in right now. So that's going to be the next big investment. Because I'm always viewing how can I grow and develop my own skill set. Because when you learn and you develop, then you can provide a better service for your team, for your clients and the people around you and you grow with them as well.

Yeah, no, no, that's so true. I was just thinking too, when it comes to mentorship, like one of my, one of my biggest difficulties, which is another reason why I like having people like you on the show, is I like people that have been there, done it and actually have the experience to teach me what I don't know. But one of the things that I run into all the time when you're trying to figure out what mentor you have, you really don't know, like it's really difficult for the average person to oftentimes know, hey, should I invest my $10,000 with this mentor or this program? Or should I invest my $10,000 with this mentor or this program? Do you have any insight into what it takes to really choose a high quality mentor for whatever season you are in as a CEO or business owner?

I think the really important thing is to find someone who's been through the journey because there's a lot of people who are out there selling programs and some of them are fantastic and they get incredible results. But there's also a lot of people who are just kind of that fake it till you make it. So I think it's really important to find someone who's actually been through the transition, but then also as well look at their client success stories. Because even going back to elite athletes, you're going to have some people who take the NBA. Some of the coaches have never been the top players, but they've studied it, they've honed it, they know how to bring in the best in people. So it's not just the success that they've got for themselves. Because oftentimes just because someone has got to a certain point doesn't mean they know how to help other people. So really important thing is go through the clients, look at the testimonials, and then talk to them about their failures as well. Like if someone's openly willing to admit, like, these are the things we got wrong, these are the people that we couldn't help, that's going to give you so many insights into what's going on. And you also have to make sure it's applicable for what you're trying to do. Because if someone's like a jack of all trades and they're like, we help every business and we do everything.

It may not get the same results. As to someone who's been like, we only help people like this, this is what we do and this is what we're known for. And then you've just got to make a bit of a gut decision. You're never going to know the alternative to any decision you make. So if you go in with the mentality of, I'm going to get everything I can out of this, I'm going to put in the work and show up, chances are it's going to help you succeed in one way or another.

Yeah, no, it's so true. In fact, I was thinking too that there's a huge difference in a skill set between fabrication and manufacturing than it is with Like a service based business, like an H Vac company or a plumbing company, or a hairstylist or someone who gets their nails done, for example. I am curious, like you've done a lot of research, you've done a lot of work, you've built your own businesses, you've gone, you've what, you've gone through what I refer to as the sacrifice, the success, whole her whole journey. How did you find yourself wanting and really like super desiring to help other CEOs become incredible CEOs?

Yeah. So honestly, it was something that I fell into when I started my first business. Basically my dad's cancer took me on this journey, journey of transformation. I lost over 50 pounds, turned my life around. I started a company helping people from around the world get their health under control. And while the business was really good and I was great at what we did, I was in over my head. I didn't know how to run a company, I didn't know how to manage people. I didn't know how to deal with all of these fires and challenges. And I got pushed to a point where I was just burnt out. My business was a mentor and emotional drain. It was just a battle to get through the day. And that was where I really realized if I don't learn how to get this under control, I'm going to have to throw in the towel. So I went and learned everything I could about leadership and managing people and dealing with fires and challenges and the pressures that come with building a business. And at the time, I was working with a lot of entrepreneurs and business owners on their health and the stresses and everything that was impacting them. And naturally these issues started coming up in the work we were doing. And I realized that helping them navigate wasn't just what I love to do, it was my superpower. So the natural evolution for my focus was to help people who were struggling like I was. Who were Those first time CEOs who had been thrown into our leadership position but were in over their head. It was something that I managed to fix for myself. So the natural progression was to help other people who were struggling like I was. So that's why I said it wasn't planned. It was just the natural evolution from where I was to where I became. And I kind of found myself along the way.

Well, I'm glad you found yourself because I know you've helped a lot of folks and continue to do so, which is pretty incredible. You know what I'm thinking about the. When I think about all the moments I wasn't overwhelmed. And I wouldn't even call myself a CEO at that moment. Like I didn't have the skill set of what a typical CEO would do, between strategy and vision and communication and being in the marketplace and connecting business development and all, all these types of things that are typically in relationship with a CEO role. I would say that I was more in the, more in the founder side of things for, for probably longer than I probably realized before I learned about the, the intentional perspective of actually going after operational excellence, managing cash flow, managing margin, like actually, you know, using D to help me kind of see the trees through the forest and really kind of hone me in. And one of the things that kept coming up is a sense of overwhelm on a regular basis. I wouldn't tell my team that I would go into meetings and I would talk about all the things that each department was doing wrong. I would rarely go in and talk about the things that they were doing right. I would kind of pick the wrong thing apart, so to speak. I would also find myself going into these, these meetings with a sense of insecurity that, you know, for me now this might not be for every owner and CEO, but for me, I didn't have a college background. I didn't have all the, the numbers behind my name, the cpa, the mba, the abcdefg. And I had several leadership people that did right, which was very intimidating for someone like myself. I couldn't for the life of me figure out why they were following me by choice when it seemed that they had all the credentials and things of that nature. Now they later share with me that what I had was vision and strategy. What they brought to the table was operations, which is why we were able to build a great business. How much of CEO mishaps or developing CEO mishaps is related to fear, insecurity and overwhelm?

Far more than you'd realize, because I'm fortunate at this point. I've worked with CEOs now in 15 different countries and some of the people I've worked with are running billion dollar unicorns in Silicon Valley. And these, some of them are like young guys who are just incredible what they do. They've been propelled into this position and they've never run a company before. And that's why I'm not a business coach. Like I don't get involved with the strategy and building the business side. Like that's not what I do. My focus is on the CEO and how they're showing up and everything that they do that's why the industry and the company and everything's irrelevant because our focus is on them and how they're navigating it. And time and time again I see the biggest stumbling block in the way of their success is themselves. Exactly. Like you just shared as an example, one guy I work with, he's got this billion dollar company like they're going to be the next big thing in food. Absolute genius. But because he's been propelled to this level, he's had so much imposter syndrome because the people around him on his board are guys that have completely transformed the food industry. He looks at them and they're like, why are they even here? Like, it's just so much self doubt. And this has actually gone the way of the business a lot because he's had so many situations in the past where his gut is telling him to go one way, but he gets guidance from other people, tell him to go a different direction so he blindly just buys into it, even with that internal resistance because he thinks, oh, they know better. They've got the experience and the credentials I need to trust them. And then it backfires. So a big part of our work has got him to really build his intuition to know when to trust himself. Because at the end of the day, no one knows the vision, the reason why he's doing things better than himself. So you really need to balance the guidance that you're getting from these outside sources, knowing when to actually listen to it and when to actually trust yourself.

Yeah. No, dude, that's so good. That is so, so good. You know, I was thinking too.

You know, this is maybe a kind of good segue into your new work. Maybe you should give up because like, as a CEO, I think one of the most difficult seasons that you ever face, right, Is knowing when you, when you should slide over and let a new CEO take take root. Or in my case, like, I'll give you an example. One of my bigger businesses is, is a high eight figure business. And I built it from scratch, like totally bootstrap. You mentioned it earlier, no cash, no credit, just like, like literally pull stuff out of the trash piles and let, let's go. I mean that's, that was my story. And what I've realized over the last year and a half is if I want that particular business to be a high nine figure or above business, it's going to take a skill set that I currently don't possess. Not that I couldn't develop it. I could take the time to develop it over five or ten years, but I currently don't possess it at, like, offhand, which means if I can bring someone else in that does have that skill set, I can actually scale the business quicker in a roundabout way. Make my business and myself more successful by simply sliding over because of the skill set. So with all of that in mind, how does someone know whether or not they should kind of maybe give up or kind of like. And it doesn't have to be just CEO specific, but how do we get there? Like, how do we. How do we. Because I. I'm always conscious of not letting people give up too early because I figure that's that life's like the easy thing to do. Right. You never really know. And then on. On the other side, there is a time and a place to slide over and do something else within your zone of genius and let somebody else fulfill a different role. At least I think that that's how I think at the moment.

Yeah. Using your situation as an example, like, the advice I would give to someone who's feeling that way is like, what do you want? Because at the end of the day, there's different metrics for success. It's not just going to be, how much money are you making? And I've got all of those kind of numbers. It's also what excites you and makes you want to get out of bed in the morning. So if you're at a point and you're just like, you know what? I love this. I want to grind this for the next five years, develop the skill set and get to the next level, then you've got your answer. But if you're at that point, you're like, you know what? I'm not really enjoying it anymore. I've got all these other things I could be doing. I don't really feel like facing this battle for five more years to get to that point, then that's sort of a warning sign of, you know what? Maybe it's time to hand over. Yeah. So it's just really looking and trusting your intuition about what you want. Because the amount of people I speak to who get up in the morning and they just hate what they're doing. They're just miserable. But because they've got all these responsibilities, they feel like they have to do it. So I would always push people to, like, what's going to make you happy? So at the end of the day, that's the only thing that matters.

Yeah. Not. And that's kind of one of the things that I think does make sense. But at the same time, do you find that, like.

I'm always cautious with using the word what makes you happy unless it's truly time. Like, it's. Because I find that building a business obviously is not easy. It's not for the faint of heart. Entrepreneurship by entrepreneurship by itself is not by definition easy. I was with a whole host of entrepreneurs that are private mastermind over the last few days and it was, it was.

It was very obvious that they were all struggling from very similar things. First of all, they all wanted their businesses to grow overnight. They all wanted their businesses to be able to function to a degree without them early stage. And they all wanted their businesses to provide a level of success in the marketplace which is nothing wrong with any of those things in the proper dosages. And what I was able to share with them is like, look, if you're going to step into the entrepreneur's role, you're going to have to understand there's going to be sacrifices and things that have to take place first before you can get to those places. But those places are there. And I think the tricky part for me is knowing when, when you do each one. Like, it's. I think I'm, I'm more intuitive now with it myself personally. But when it comes to our audience and the other entrepreneurs and the people that are building businesses as part of our community, I would, I would, I would want to give them, like, I don't know, and maybe there's not a good filter or something like that, but a way to kind of know, okay, is it. Should I keep going with my direction? Make with me doing all these things and this is part of the sacrifice season? Or is the sacrifice. Is my sacrifice season kind of over? I've got a measure of success now. It's better to move on to something else.

Yep. I think maybe happiness was the wrong word. It's more of like, what's bringing excitement and fulfillment into your life. Because some people love the fight. They love just getting in the trenches and scrapping and pushing to get to the next level. Whereas some people I work with are just completely burnt out and they're just like, every day is just a day to get there, a challenge to get through. And that's why it's going to be very. I, I'm reluctant to give a filtering framework because I think it's so situational dependent, but it's just really listening to yourself and being like, am I still in this fight? Am I ready to go another 12 rounds? Or am I at a point where, yeah, I'M not enjoying this anymore and I'm looking for an out. Because if you're struggling to get up in the morning and you're not feeling motivated and you don't want to follow through, those are all red flags that something deeper is misaligned and going wrong. And you've really got to look at, like, how are you showing up and are you still having the level of drive to get there? Because if you're not, then that's okay. It's not necessarily a bad thing. But that might be a time that you want to step aside. But if you're still 100% in, you're like, you know what? I'm loving what I'm doing, then keep pushing. Like, it really comes down to, like, what's the sort of life that you want to create? Because you're going to have struggles regardless whether you're pushing and trying to grow things or whether you're struggling to find balance. All these things. So you've got to pick your struggle. Like, what is the struggle that you want to put yourself through?

Yeah, pick your struggle. I think pick your struggle is. Yeah, yeah, that resonates because there are different struggles at different levels and that really never stops. Like, even if you go and sell your business, your next struggle is going to be, what do I do with my identity and my meaning now that I've sold a business and moved on? Right. What am I? What's my next thing? Maybe, you know, maybe you go sit on the beach for three or four months or something like that. But after then you're going to get bored, especially if you're an actual entrepreneur. Like, I have an idea about every 10 minutes and, you know, if I don't have a way to exercise my idea muscle, like, I would go stir crazy, you know, I'm curious though. I want to pivot a little bit. What made you decide to bring maybe you should give up to the marketplace? And what was the heart behind what you wanted to communicate to the readers?

Yeah. So over the last decade, from working with people in so many different countries, what I've seen is whether it's a CEO running a billion dollar company, a corporate professional, even just like a stay at home mother. The biggest barrier, the way of most people's success is themselves. It's that sabotaging voice that causes them to doubt, overthink, and avoid taking the actions they need to take to create the life that they want. And that's with this book. I really saw it as my next legacy project. Like this. Maybe you should give up. It's not about giving up on your goals and dreams. It's about giving up on everything that's stopping you from actually turning them to reality. And I discovered that there's seven mental barriers that every single one of us struggle with. Whether it's fear, comparing yourself to others, focusing on the future and worrying about problems, or even being too hard on yourself. And that's why the book is all about breaking through these barriers to help someone take control of their life. So for me, it was basically from working with so many people. I was at a point where I was like, you know what? I've learned all this stuff. I figured out how to get someone to stop sabotaging themselves. And it's the next big natural progression of what I want to pass on to this world.

Yeah, man, that's so good. Self sabotage.

We could go on for days talking about self sabotage. What are telltale signs that maybe you're. Maybe you are self sabotaging yourself with one of those seven areas? Wait, other. Well, first of all, the easiest way I probably is to go and pick up the book. Go grab the book and get a. And actually read through the pages and get a lot of nuggets and bring a highlighter with you for sure. But what are some of the techniques that we can use to help them identify maybe where those roadblocks are? So maybe they can go ahead and jump in and start kind of like working on those roadblocks.

Yeah. So some of the big telltale signs that you're self sabotaging is where you know what you need to do, but you're not doing it. Like, you know that there's an action you need to take in your life and business, but for whatever reason you're putting it off. Like, is it because you're fearing failure? You're worried about rejection? You are getting so caught up in anxiety and problems. It's always recognizing why you've got that internal resistance. Because a lot of this is down to how your subconscious mind is programmed and your brain wanting to keep you where you are. And it's always recognizing that every new level of success is going to require a new level of thinking. Until you change the thoughts and the mental barriers in your head, you're going to stay stuck. So that's always the advice I give to people. It's just developing that awareness of why are you feeling stuck right now? Why are you not following through? Why are you procrastinating or just feeling like something's missing? Like that in itself. Where you just keep getting in your own way and you know that you're the one who's causing problems. That's a red flag that something's going on that you need to address.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that makes total sense. That makes total sense. Oh, my gosh. Little epiphany there, man. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. I mean, I guess, I guess we could say. I guess I would, you know, say. I've said it. Something like this is. It's. I've always been a proponent of doing the hard work first. And I've always said that whatever is the hard thing, if you do it first, it makes everything else behind it easier. But how I just heard you articulate that, I can also kind of pivot it from a standpoint of the hard thing is probably the thing that you're avoiding, which is the very thing that you should do. So that kind of like, builds right. Like builds right off of that, man. Wow.

Yeah. Yeah. It's also just recognizing what's actually holding you back. Because hard work for so many people, they've convinced themselves that's the secret to success. But at the end of the day, how many hard working people do you know who are broke?

It's working hard really going to get them to the next level. And that's why it's so important. Even talking about CEOs and entrepreneurs, like, the thing that's going to get you there is having the right mindset because you can give 100 people the exact same strategy and they're all going to get different results. What separates them is their ability to show up and follow through. And this is why it's so important. If you don't master the way that you think and you keep getting in your own way and not actually taking action, that's why you're stuck. So it's all about coming into awareness of, okay, why are you actually getting stuck in your own head? Why are you overthinking? Why are you second guessing yourself? Why are you not doing what you need to do to follow through? When you recognize and you break through it, that's how you can start getting out of your own way. And then success comes as a side effect. So so many people get caught up in looking for strategies. I mean, like, I need to work more hours, I need to put more into it. Whereas a lot of the time that's just a coping mechanism. Like, we do this all the time as entrepreneurs. We're like, I need to put in more work, I need to do more hours. But it's like Is it actually amounting to anything? Because we're all guilty of it. We dive into busy work and things we shouldn't be doing because it feels comfortable. We're like, we can like, at the end of the day, being like, I was really busy, but it's like, was that time actually productive? And when you can really take a step back and look at the bigger picture, then you can start to see, okay, this is what did you actually need to move forward and then become a lot more honed in?

Mm, yeah, no, that's. That's good. And I'm a self, I guess, self induced workaholic. I like. I like work. I like what. I love what I do. I like how, you know, I like kind of what it has done and built. And one of the biggest things I've struggled with personally kind of builds off of that, which is, am I really doing busy work or am I doing compound interest work? Meaning I'm compounding my time, my talents, and my resources by doing this initiative versus these five things kind of thing.

Is there a trick, a hack, a secret? None of those words are probably the right word, but is there something that we can do in the moment to have a greater level of self awareness, to kind of say, okay, I'm actually in my own. Like, I'm seeing, I'm not getting the result that I want. Like, how does someone stop? Like, someone like myself who is a natural, go, go, go, go, go, go, go kind of person? Like, it's super. It has been super difficult in times past for me to stop, pause, reflect, strategize, move. Like, what types of things can we do to kind of get ourselves off the crazy wheel, so to speak.

So there's a few different ways to do it. Part of it is effective planning. It's before you even dive in and create a plan for the day, it's going through your list of things to get done and just honestly asking yourself, is this actually important? As in, will this lead to growth? If the answer is yes, does this need to be done by you or could it be done by someone else? I get amazed how often I go through this with clients. And we'll remove 50% of their to do list because they've taken it on without even thinking about it, when actually they should be delegating and handing it off. Another really easy way to think about it is to work out, on average, how much is an hour of your time worth? Yeah, like, to keep it simple, let's say if you do an hour of work in the Business, it's worth a thousand dollars. Yeah, well, going through that lens, you should not be doing tasks that you could Pay someone else $38 an hour to do. To do. Because every hour you spend in that, you're losing money. And it's not just money, it's also taking your energy or focus your bandwidth, which is going to directly impact growth. So it's starting to look through the lens of is this the best use of your time? And that goes back to what we spoke about at the beginning of knowing your zone of genius. These are. This is the bubble of where your energy and focus needs to go in and everything else outside that you need to question before you take it on. And it starts with preempting your day of going in and being like, all the things I'm committing to, actually things I should be doing. Because, yes, it may take you a few minutes to go through and figure out, okay, I need to delegate and hand this off. But those few minutes could save you hours across the week. So you've just got to not be your own worst enemy and not just dive in because it's there.

Yeah, man. Man, that's so good, dude, we could talk for hours on this, man. You know what? Everybody should go pick up the book. Maybe you should give up. For sure they need to go do it. I love your experience. I love your heart to serve. I love the fact that you're, you are actually. It's funny. Well, it's not funny, it's more interesting. Or it's a compounding effect. As you serve more CEOs and you serve more high performance leaders.

You'Re creating massive leverage yourself by impacting their lives. You're going on to build amazing organizations, having great levels of team members or building better teams, better impact, better communities. Like it's. I would call. I kind of look at it like almost like an influencer of influencers, if that makes any sense. Right. So where can everybody else find out more about you and then learn more about your work and possibly even work with you?

Yeah. So the easiest way to find out more about what I do is to go to byron morrison.com. you can also get my new book maybe youe Should Give up seven Ways to Get out of youf Own Way and Take control of your life. Anywhere that you can get books. And also check out what I'm doing online. I'm really active on LinkedIn and Instagram, particularly just search for author Byron Morrison. I put out daily videos and content and thought leadership pieces on how to become more effective in business and take control of your life.

Yeah. I love it. Guys, for real, Byron is the real deal. Make sure you check out all of his socials, all the websites. Make sure you stick around for that. His content's genius. It really is. Byron, thank you so much for coming on the show. Dude, I can't wait to have you on again.

Thanks for having me here.

I hope you liked that video. And if you did, make sure you check out this next video right here.

When we do mindfulness training, Right, A.

Lot of people don't understand, well, why do we do mindfulness training? And the easiest thing I can say.

About that is it's like bodybuilding, right?

It's like a bicep. My psychologist I work would say it's like doing a bicep curl for your brain.