149. You need to think BIGGER. Here's how.

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We're not thinking bigger when we're not living in the bigger pot. There's some very tactical things that we do inside of our firms that keep us small. Right. So if, if you're not thinking bigger when it comes to things like workflows, right, how you're setting up your business, the, the, the processes that are in place, the workflows, we're not thinking about how to set up workflows that will enable us to do $2 million a year in business. Instead of letting those things become roadblocks, let them become your roadmap. Let those things become the things that you're focused on next month, next quarter. Those become your, like, tactical goals. Use those as a thing to empower you instead of limit you. All right, so let's dive in three places, three areas where we tend to think too small. In the first one, as fractional CFOs, we tend to think too small about what's possible for our clients. Tend to think too small about what's possible for our clients. Now listen, of the three things that we're gonna talk about today, I think this is the easiest one to fall into because a lot of times our clients think too small about what's possible for themselves. And so they're telling us like, what they're trying to do, where they're trying to go, how they're trying to do it, and it narrows our thinking, it puts blinders on for us as it relates to them. So you gotta watch out for that. You gotta watch out when your clients are thinking too, about what's possible for themselves. It's easy for us to narrow down our thinking and to limit the things that we're suggesting to them. The problem with that is when the client's vision is too small for what's possible for what they can do, they tend to create solutions to those smaller problems, to those smaller goals. And so they're never able to break through because everything around them is set up for small. Okay, let me give you an example. About a year ago, one of our, one of our larger clients were in their office. They're a Dallas based client, and we're talking about like annual goal planning for them, right? And they're throwing out these ideas. They want to grow 10% year over year, you know, 15% year over year. Not bad, right? Decent size growth. It's a larger company. So, you know, 15% growth for, for a business that's multiple eight figures is, is not insignificant. And then as they start talking about like, what are we going to do to grow that much, right? So they're like, well, we're going to have to increase our headcount because if we want to grow, we got to take on more jobs. If we want to take on more jobs, we got to have, you know, blah, blah, blah. Again, they're kind of like coming up with small solutions to their small problems, to their small goals. Guys, instead of thinking about how do we just like increase our revenue 10, 15, 20% by doing more of the same stuff we've been doing, why don't instead we start working with clients and getting jobs that are like 10 times larger than what we're getting today? Right. Instead of continuing to do more of the small jobs, why don't we get jobs that are like millions of dollars larger? This is like in the like a contractor kind of industry. Let's go out and bids, let's put out bids for jobs that are like five, ten times larger than the ones we're doing today. It is so interesting, like the excuses that kind of start flowing on why we can't do that, right? We don't know how to estimate jobs that are that size. We don't have the processes and the procedures to do the jobs that are that size. We don't have the team with the background of servicing those kind of jobs. Right. But very quickly, it's so cool to watch, right? Because just as quickly as the excuses came in, you start to see the wheels turning and they're like, well, wait a minute. What would have to be true in order for us to get those jobs that are 10 times larger? Well, you know, we, we need to hire somebody that's, is a project manager that has experience bidding those jobs. Yeah, we're going to need some, some guys and ladies in the field that know how to manage those jobs to keep them on budget. Right. And so they start thinking through, well, you know, it's interesting this really happened. There's a guy that we know that's, that's just retiring, that's looking, you know, he's not ready to fully retire, but he knows how to bid those kind of projects and how to project manage those projects. Maybe we can just reach out to him and he could come and help, you know, for the next year, help level us up, right. Help us identify where our gaps are and help put the things in place that would need to be true for us to get these jobs that are millions and millions of dollars larger. And so like, the ideas for these things just start flowing now. Like a year later, they've identified, there was only three or four areas that they were really kind of lacking in to be able to execute at this higher level. And over the last year, they've, like, put most of those building blocks in place. And now the owner, the vice president, they're out having conversations with the big boys, if you will, in the Dallas Fort Worth area, bidding on those jobs. It's completely changed the outlook for the company. And so what I want to challenge you with here is you as the fractional cfo. I want you to be that person that's getting them to think bigger and think in a lot of ways. We almost have this. I'll call it like an unfair advantage as a fractional CFO compared to maybe a full time CFO or somebody that's in that business all the time. And that advantage is the fact that we're not in the weeds every day. So we're a little. We have a little bit less bias. We're a little bit more free to come up with the crazy ideas and ask the crazy questions. And so use that to your advantage. When your clients are thinking about what are they trying to do next quarter, next month, next year, over five years, I want you to ask yourself the crazy questions, like, all right, this is. I know where they're trying to go with this thing. I know what the owners are trying to do. Are they thinking big enough about how they could get there? Are they thinking big enough about what that end goal is? And really challenge them to think outside the box. Challenge yourself first to think outside the box for them, but then challenge them to think outside the box as well. A lot of times it's easy to get complacent, right? We want to take the easy road. We want to play it safe, want to stay in the comfort zone. So you really got to ask yourself, like, are they. Are they minimizing their impact? Are they minimizing what's possible for themselves because they've got their own blinders on? That's the first thing, right? We minimize what's possible for our clients as fractional CFOs. The second thing, we tend to minimize. I know this is as true for me as it is for anybody else. We tend to minimize what's possible for our firms. And so just think back to the same kind of small thinking that holds our clients back. It's the same type of thinking that can hold us back too. I think there's kind of two ways that this shows itself. One is just like our clients, we have these blinders, are that are a function of our limiting beliefs. And the dangerous thing about these limiting beliefs is, ladies and gentlemen, a lot of times we don't even know that we have the beliefs. They're just living inside of our head. And it completely masks the possibilities that are around us. It leaves us completely blind to what's possible. The other way that these limitations show themselves is we tell ourselves stories, right? How many people here tell yourself stories about what is or isn't possible for your firm? My firm could never charge this much. My firm could never work with clients that are this size. My firm can never work with clients that are in this industry. My firm could never get the kind of talent that we would need to join the firm, to join the team, to be able to do the things that I'd like to do. Right. My firm could never have that kind of impact. Those stories are so dangerous because it keeps us where we're at. It keeps us in the small pot. And we have those blinders and those stories, those limiting beliefs. We just don't grow. And so those stories and blinders, they kind of metastasize. I'll keep with that metaphor in a couple of different ways. If you find content like this helpful, then I'd like to invite you to join my Inner Circle program. Inside the Inner Circle, you'll find a highly engaged and highly supportive community of 300 other fractional CFOs. Many of them are just getting started, but many of them have been in the industry for years. You'll find a great mix of all experience levels. It's super collaborative and super supportive. I also go live on Zoom every.

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And best practices that I've learned over the last nine years of running my own fractional CFO firm and KFE Solutions. Just click the link below to try the inner circle, 100% risk free for 30 days. I hope to see you inside. When we're not thinking bigger, when we're not living in the bigger pot, there's some very tactical things that we do inside of our firms that keep us small. Right? So if, if you're not thinking bigger when it comes to things like workflows, right, how you're setting up your business, the, the, the processes that are in place, the workflows. We're not thinking about how to set up workflows that will enable $2 million a year in business. We're not thinking about workflows that are going to enable us to handle 30 clients. We're thinking about workflows that are going to enable us to handle the clients we have right now, plus two. So if you're not thinking bigger about what's possible, then you're not thinking bigger about the tactical things that you've got in place to find that next step, to find that new reality for you. Another big one. Along with workflows, they go hand in hand, is we're not thinking about the processes and procedures that we've got to have to get to a million dollars to get to $5 million. Or maybe you don't want to get to a million dollars or $5 million. You're not thinking about the workflows and the processes and the procedures you need to take home 80% net profit working 25 hours a week. Because we've limited ourselves, we're not thinking like that. The other tactical thing, when we're thinking small, we don't think right about our systems. Right. The things that we're building around us, the back end, the back office, things that we need to have more impact to serve more clients, to serve on a higher level. We're not putting those systems in either. They're going to unlock that potential for us. All of those things add up to be the pot that causes the plant to not be able to grow. So then the opportunities come to do the bigger things. We couldn't capitalize on them if we wanted to because we don't have the back end setup. We don't have the workflows, the processes, the systems, the team, the infrastructure. We don't have any of those things in place. One of my favorite quotes is luck is just the intersection of preparation and opportunity. When we think small, we haven't done the things we need to do to prepare for the big opportunity to come. And then we just say that we're unlucky. The plant died. My wife bought me a shitty plant. It died. No, what happened was I didn't do the preparation for the plant to grow. I didn't get it. A pot big enough for it to grow in. And so the growth could never happen. And the same thing's true with our firms. When we don't put the work in, we don't think in bigger. We're not thinking down the road. We're not putting those things in place to allow growth. Coming from a submarine, right? I was. For those of you that are new here, that don't, I was on submarines in the Navy for 11 years on a submarine. If you're not moving forward, you're sinking. It's the perfect metaphor in My opinion for business, if you're not moving forward, the submarine is sinking. So in a lot of ways, I feel like if you're not growing, you're dying. I remember years ago when we had. We kind of phoenixed our firm, we fired all our clients, and we were rebuilding. One of my big goals is I wanted to be able to charge. I think at the time, like my biggest. My B hag, my stretch goal, I wanted to be able to charge three grand a month. I mean, we had been charging like 500 or a thousand dollars a month just like 30 days prior, you know, And I think one of the big breakthrough moments for me was, you know, I talk a lot about my dry erase, but I had like two or three days where I'm like dry erase, boarding things out. One of my big breakthrough moments was I caught myself, like, in that what's possible, what's not possible thing, the stories, the blinders, and I literally had a thing up there, said what would have to be true. Okay, I got to get my messaging dialed in in order to charge three grand. Because the messaging, the copy, the words that we're using don't speak to being a $3,000 value. Onboarding is a dumpster fire. We got to fix onboarding. Our CFO report looks like crap. The sales call cringeworthy, right? So I'm like, identifying all these things that needed to get fixed. I started putting the pieces in place, building the bigger containers so that we could get the bigger clients, so that we could charge more, so that we could have more impact. And I think one of the bultiest mindsets that people have, one of the biggest mistakes they make on this. And if you don't take anything else away from today, I want you to take this away. Because this doesn't just impact you, but it'll impact your clients as well. A lot of people think backwards about this. A lot of people think that you first have to grow, then you get the bigger container, Right? In order for me to do these things, like, I'm going to go get the clients and then I'm going to build the systems, then I'm going to get the processes, the workflows, the automations, the team. It doesn't work that way. It's backwards. You've got to work on getting those things in place before you can get the bigger clients, before you can start at a higher level, before you can maximize your impact. Now, no, you don't have to have the messaging, the onboarding, the cfo, like, all of the things perfected but you have to start making space in that container. You've got to start working on it because the market's going to sniff out that you're not ready. They're going to sniff it out. So I really want to challenge your thinking. If that's you, that you've been telling yourselves, once I get the bigger clients, then you got to flip that script around. You do the things, then you'll get the bigger clients.

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The third thing that we tend to think too small about as fractional CFOs, we tend to think too small about what's possible for ourselves. And there's a number of what reasons why this is. The first one is our history. Where we're from, where we're from, our origin story. You know, if you're like a Star Wars Marvel kind of person with the origin stories that come out, our origin story dictates so much about what we tell ourselves, about where we are and where we can go. I came from this background or I didn't go to that college. I don't have that certification, therefore I can only go this far. That was me for a long time. I was born in a single wide trailer in a trailer park. My dad had a GED that he got later in life so that he could enlist in the Navy. My mom didn't even have a ged. You know, I went through high school, did pretty well, went to college and flunked out my first time around. And for years I told myself this story about how far I could go based on that origin story, I'm only going to be able to make this much money. I'm. I only deserve to do this much because of where I'm from. I don't have the pedigree. I didn't go to that university. I didn't do that thing that all these other people around me that are so much more qualified, so much more deserving have. I can't do that because of where I'm from. And it's weird. Like we have those stories, but they're almost like in our subconscious. It's not stuff that we really think about a lot of times. But it was like kind of through this journey of like journaling and meditation and prayer that I realized I became self aware enough to know that I was telling myself those stories. And it impacted the decisions that I made every day in life and in business. Almost like self sabotaging. So I'd really encourage you if you've got one of those origin stories that it feels like it's an origin story you're not proud of, I'd like ask yourself, journal on it. Meditate, pray on it. Is my origin story. Am I using that as an excuse to influence what I think is possible? For me, the second thing that causes us to think too small about what's possible for ourselves is external influences. The people that we surround ourselves with when we hang out with people that are similar to us, that they're in the same spot that we're in, they're not normally encouraging us, they're not normally pushing us, they're not challenging us to level up and say you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. There's nothing wrong with that. It's not that they're bad people, but I just want to caution you to be careful, especially in the, the kind of business realm. Pick one or two or three people that are a step or two or three steps ahead of you that are going to challenge you to think bigger. Because they're thinking bigger, right? They're, they're in that place. Their, their bigger thinking is what got them one or two or three steps ahead of you. A great story that comes to mind with that. I'm preparing for the webinar and I call one of my friends. He's built two multiple eight figure businesses. He's in the online coaching kind of space, course creation, all that kind of stuff. And I told him, I was like, hey, look, at the end of this webinar, I'm going to sell, you know, I want to sell tickets to my event. And he was like, you're going to do what? And I said, I'm going to sell tickets to the accelerator live. And he's like, no, man, don't sell tickets to the accelerator live. You got to think bigger than that. He's like, don't you have a course that people love? I said, yeah. He's like, you're telling me you're going to have almost 200 captive eyeballs on the screen and you're going to sell them a 600 ticket instead of a $3,500 course? I said, yeah. He's like, come on, man, you got to think bigger than that. And so I made that pivot. We sold multiple, multiple five figures worth of that course. And I share with you guys, not to brag, right, not to sound braggadocious, but I want you to be around. I want to show you what's possible when you're around people that are farther than you, that think bigger than you. It unlocks so many possibilities. If I had gone to somebody, you know, another person in this, in the industry, the kind of coaching, course creation industry that was the same size, they would have been like, yay, go sell your your tickets. That'll be great. So really challenge yourself. Ask yourself, are you hanging around with those people? There's several steps ahead of you. Or are you kind of stuck with people that think the same as you, that solve problems the same way, that do? One of my favorite ways to do that is masterminds. You know, you guys heard me talk. I've spent about a quarter million dollars in the last few years on masterminds. And I'll tell you, like, the thing that I find most beneficial of being in a mastermind is you're around people that think differently, they approach problems differently, they solve problems differently. All of those things result in me having a bigger container. So look for those opportunities to get around other people. There's people in this group right now on this call right now that there's multiple steps, us further than you connect with them. When we break into the small groups later, ask them questions. How would you solve this? I'm thinking too small about this client in this way. What would you do? What would you guys do? Leverage that. The next thing that really limits us and keeps us thinking too small about ourselves and what's possible for us. I love them to death, but family and friends, a lot of times they tell us what is and isn't possible, we like with the best of intentions, right? They're going to tell us what is and is impossible. They tell us that we should just be grateful for what we have. We should be content, we should count our blessings, you know, and instead of encouraging a lot of times us to grow, to, to scale our impacts, they want to tell us to just stay safe. I had a really good friend of mine when I was thinking about starting my business, he was like, are you sure you want to leave the, the job with the benefits and the, the vacation time and the 401k and the company car and all the things, shouldn't you just stay put? He's like, it's safe. Why would you take on all this risk? So really watch out for that with the family and friends and family. I think a lot of times can be as bad with this as friends could be. You know, hey, we never had X growing up, you know, you, you're so lucky to be where you're at. Just stay where you're at. Don't be greedy. Watch out for that. The other one that's, that's so, Gosh, this one's toxic. It really pisses me off. Is who we follow the worst, most toxic part on social media. So many people tell stories on social media about the hustle and the grind. You got to work longer, you got to work harder, right? And a lot of us, if you're like me, you see that and you're like, I don't want to work longer, I don't want to work harder. I like getting off at 5 and home and seeing my wife. I like going and hanging out on the weekends and traveling and doing those things. So we see these people telling us this story of what it takes and what our life will look like if we dare to go bigger, if we try to level up, if we try to do more, increase our impact, they tell us what it's going to look like. And I'm here to tell you folks that's that lifestyle is a choice. Success does not have to equate working longer hours, working weekends, being away from your family, sacrificing your values. Those things are a choice. Now I will tell you that you've got to be intentional about setting up the things we talked about earlier. The processes, the workflows, the systems, the automations, you got to be intentional about setting it up or that business will creep into every crevice of your personal life and make life miserable for you. So really, again, just watch who you're letting speak into you and know that maybe it's true for this person, that it's the hustle and grind lifestyle. That just means don't follow them. Don't let them be the person that you're using to influence you, to inspire you, to show you the way to go. There are so many people out there that do it in a way that's in alignment with family values, with boundaries, doing it that different way. So just be careful with that. And the last thing that really kind of impacts that, you know, self limitation, self confidence, and imposter syndrome. I can't accomplish this because who am I to do that? I don't have the pedigree. I don't have the right letters after my name. I don't know how to get this client or do that marketing or offer those services. I don't have enough experience. And all of that goes back to the limiting the limitation of what's possible for our future based on our current circumstances or what our abilities and skills are that we have today. And so I'd say if you find yourself having those internal dialogues, I want you to remember back to that client that I was talking about earlier. I want you to remember back to my dry erase board session that I told you about earlier. Check that crap and say, no, no, let me reframe this. Yes, it's true that I'm not able to do those things today. But what would have to be true in order for that to be my reality? What would have to be true in order for that to become my reality? Write the go down right there on the dryer race board, some butcher paper, wherever your thing is, but write it down and then just start listing out what would need to be true for that to be possible. Do you need the project managers? Do you need to learn how to do marketing better? Do you need to find a better CFO report template? And instead of those things becoming roadblocks, let them become your road map. I didn't mean to do that, but I feel like that was. I feel like that's going to be a social media clip. Instead of letting those things become roadblocks, let them become your roadmap. Let those things become the things that you're focused on next month, next quarter. Those become your, like, tactical goals. Use those as a thing to empower you instead of limit you. We're having a conversation yesterday and Gretchen got on a soapbox about this as we were kind of talking through the talking points for today, you know, and she's like, when, when you set your goals too small, it never challenges you to think bigger. And she's like, even if you don't hit the big goal. Having the big goal, just the existence of the big goal, forces you to think differently than you have ever before. It forces you to challenge the think that you've been using to get here. But that's also the same thinking that's caused you to be stuck here. So just the fact that you had the big goal, it's not the attainment of the big goal that creates the bigger containers. Like just the fact that you had the goal, it unlocks a different way of thinking. It unlocks a new type of problem solving. And it's just that mental shift that's going to allow you to do more, to have more impact, to grow your firm, to hit the goals that you have. When things don't work out, when you don't meet the goal, that's really where the opportunity lies for us because it forces us to think outside the box. It forces us to push ourselves into problem solve differently. And she's like that. Problem solving, that, pushing, that's where the opportunities are. All right, my friends, I hope you found this episode helpful. If you did, it would mean the world to me if you would leave a five star review on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you're listening to this episode. In the meantime, I can't wait to see you back right here next week. I'll see you then.