Do you want to start loving your business again?

A business that relies on you 24 7, that's not freedom. That is a cage. The problem that most people face as they scale up is they think that no one's going to be able to do it as well as them.

You can't just do things on your own forever and expect to grow a million or multimillion dollar. Business Growth is about team.

That is the thing that will stop you from being able to do that because you don't think that anything bad's going to happen. But one day you get sick, one day your kids get sick and you can't go to work and all of a sudden someone has to step in. And so it is to be able to make the task run without you. I'll be honest, I don't think we've nailed it. We're working on it. I think we're in constant phases of working on it. Here's why I don't think we've fully nailed.

Foreign. Welcome to episode 96 of the Success School podcast. Super pumped today. We have a really cool topic today. We're talking about how to build a business that you don't hate. Step. How you feeling?

I'm feeling good now that we got through that intro. Tim had a couple of goes there. Sometimes we didn't do our ma Mi lume. Moss.

Yeah. What is that called again?

I don't know. I think it's Annunciation. Annunciation. We should have done our annunciation.

Just do it and everyone can hear us right now.

Yeah, sorry about that.

All right, let's start with personal updates. What's going on with you?

You know what, I'm going to leave this personal update, I think, because actually I just found out something super interesting and I was fascinated by what we just found out.

Okay, tell us.

So we are sitting here in a really cool studio, podcast studio. Shout out to Pod Wave. Awesome. Best podcast studio in Perth. Super stoked to be here. And they were telling us that people come in and they act like their podcasts are them acting. So, for example, you know, it might be like an online influencer. And they said that the person that comes in for the booking is completely different to the person once the cameras start rolling. And that blows my mind. That just blew my mind. Like, literally I'm sitting here, like, spinning out thinking, and everything they say is ghostwritten by other people so that they can hit marketing pain points so that people purchase what? And we're just sitting here trying to be like, how do we be more ourselves? Not like, how do we act more like, other people. Insane.

Just so you know, guys, we don't do that. This is not teleprompter.

No, this is not totally prompted.

Why don't we do that? Tell us, like the authenticity piece.

I didn't even know that you could do that.

Now that I know we have people that they just go on. Our friends just go on teleprompters and stuff like that.

It's them. It's still them. It's their essence. It's who they are. They're not acting like a completely different person. I think that we don't do it. I don't know. We coach. So at the end of the day, it makes like you're gonna meet us in our container. So it would be really weird if you joined and then we were completely different to how we are also. God, that sounds exhausting. Like, I would be so tired.

That's a lot of effort.

It's a lot of effort to uphold. Yeah, for sure. Anyway, Blew my mind. If you're as mind blown about that as me, like, send me a message, because I just think that's a little ick. But no judgment.

Steph's not an actor. No. My personal update. I know mine are kind of fun and funny usually, but a little bit deeper this week. So normally there's a bit of vilification of people that make money and have money in society. And this week I had the opportunity to take a load off my parents shoulders with paying their bills, which feels kind of nice. So a couple weeks ago, my dad came to me and he said was struggling financially, and I sat down with them, went through their bills, went through their finances, and I had the opportunity to take a load off their plate, which was. It felt really nice. And I kind of thought that, like, that's the benefit or one of the benefits of entrepreneurship is, you know, you can make expendable income and you can help other people. It's not just about Lambos and fast cars and big houses and these types of things. You can help the immediate people around us. And it really got me thinking. I was like, maybe this is what it's actually for. And this is the benefit of entrepreneurship. It's the late nights, the hustle, the. The grind, all the bullshit, all the people you have to deal with, all the stuff. It was pretty wholesome. It was like a. Was a good feeling. So thank you, Steph. Also, you're a part of that. It's not just me fucking paying for my parents. It's. It's us, which has been cool.

Yeah, I mean, we've been paying my. For my parents for a little while, so it's, it's really nice. It's. It's not always obvious. And a lot of the time, I think, especially when it comes to parents, they don't really ask for help.

Right.

And they don't really want your help. So the fact that your dad felt comfortable enough to come to you, and also you were able to take, you know, a heap of the bills off the. And pay them so that they could live comfortably, like, for sure, that's what it's for, is so nice.

Just a big favor here. If you get any value from this and you're new here, please subscribe to the show. That's how we measure if we're doing a good job or not. So we would strongly appreciate the affirmations that we're doing a good job on this podcast right now.

We would love a thumbs up by subscribing, please. Tim, what are we talking about today?

Yeah, we're talking about building a business that you don't hate. And I kind of want to throw over to you, Steph, you built a business that you don't hate. So you've had a business that you did hate. Tell us about that.

I've had a few businesses I've hated.

Me, too.

I don't know if you ever get to build without building that one first. But look, there's so many things that go into this. But ultimately, usually what happens is you build it the way that somebody else builds it, or you just don't know really what you want or what your key core values are. And so, you know, if someone gives you a business coach or a friend or whoever gives you advice, you pay for courses and they give you advice, you just kind of take it and you just build it that way, because that's the way it's done to get to the outcome that you want. And then you get to the outcome you want. You realize your values kind of the further into entrepreneurship you get. Is it money? Is it time? Is it freedom? Is it enjoyment? Like, what is it for you? And ultimately, like, that's what you have to know in order to not build a business you hate.

Yeah, for sure. So there are four things you need to know before we get into. We're going to give you a step by step on how to build a business that you don't hate. I'll go through points one and three here. So I guess the big trap that a lot of people get into is just like the Hustle at all costs. Hustling is epic. And I do think it is required to build a business that is of substance. But if you're hustling all the time, 12 hour days, 7 days a week, forever, it just gets pretty old. Like the full hormozy regen lock ing work. Lock yourself in a basement, don't ever see the sun, eat ice cream, do steroids. Like the whole hormozy thing, like, does get old after a while. It's just going on a tangent on hormones there. I'm like the guy. But like, hustling is the fastest way to build a business that you do hate because you just get resentful. So that's my number one. Like, do not do in terms of building a business.

And this is coming from probably a reformed hustler.

Yeah, some people call me like a shit version of Hormozi in Perth.

I don't think they call you a shit version.

Just a. I'm a. I'm a Teemu Hormozi.

You're like, if Hormozi valued lifestyle freedom, maybe that would be where this would meet. So the second point to not building a business you hate is to not build a business that relies on you 24 7. That's not freedom. That is a cage.

Do we have that?

We're working on it.

Your sales team, like, Steph, what do I do?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, no, we're working. Look, I think we're in constant phases of working on it. I'll be honest, I don't think we've nailed it. Here's why, though. Here's why I don't think we fully nailed it yet is because we're doing it for the next goal, right? So if we wanted to stabilize at a million a year, we have already done that. We could 100% have that run without us. But right now we're building to $5 million a year. That can't stabilize without us right now because we haven't got the SOPs in place. So right now it needs us. So that's because we're growing. So I do think that if you at some point want to run a. And let's say your goal is, I don't know, whatever, $50,000 a month, $100,000 a month. And once you got there, you had the income that you wanted, you have the lifestyle that you wanted, and you're happy to keep running it like that. I think you can definitely build a business that runs without you for sure. Mostly without you or without really relying on you. But the problem that most people face as they scale up is I think that no one's going to be able to do it as well as them. And that is the, that is the thing that will stop you from being able to do that because you don't think that anything bad is going to happen. But one day you get sick, one day your kids get sick, one day you break a leg or a wrist in Tim's case and you can't go to work and all of a sudden someone has to step in. And so it is really important to build something that doesn't run without you.

And the third point on what you need to know and to not build a business that you don't hate is you need systems. And everyone says that. But you know, we had an example last week where our main VA went down and we didn't have a backup and we were scrambling because we hadn't thought of her actually going down.

Yeah.

So you need systems, so SOPs, processes, everything documented. But then also you need people on your team who can cover other people if they go down. We see this all the time with especially a couple of our inner circle clients. One of their team members goes down for two days and they're like, yeah, like they don't have the required systems or the people. And when you have to step in all the time because people get sick and you know, stuff happens to loved ones and happens, that's when you start resenting it. Because as soon as someone goes down, you just don't have the manpower to handle what is happening in the business.

Absolutely. And the last one to not build a business you hate is that simple scales and complex fails. And we've seen this time and time again, especially once you get above $50,000 months. Usually the business you build to get $50,000 a month is not the business you run to get it to a hundred thousand dollar months. And it's simply because the way that you built it is too complex, it requires too many moving parts, there's too big an audience, it's not niche enough, there's too many SOPs, there's too many platforms, too many touch points and it just doesn't scale up. And at that point you are going to have a business that relies really heavily on you because your knowledge is the thing that's almost locking down all of the systems and processes. I had a really good conversation with a very good friend about this this week and she's a genius at what she's a genius at. But she can't pass that genius for decades onto her team. So the business just couldn't scale because she was trying to be too broad. But by bringing it all the way in and only having to pass a portion of her genius onto her team, she was able to create the SOPs to be able to scale simply. So sometimes people are just going too broad and deep.

Yep, for sure. All right, we're gonna get into step by step. We're gonna go rapid fire. Steph, we'll do one. I'll do one. So step one on how to build a business that you don't hate is you need to audit the work you're doing. Often when you get outside your zone of genius or the things you like doing, you start resenting it. Obviously, when you start, you need to do all the shit. You need to be the accountant, the cleaner, the psychologist, all the things in your business. But eventually you need to, you know, do an 80, 20, see what is actually growing your business, and then get other people to do the other stuff. So Dan Martell has a concept about the hiring ladder, and we can talk about that quickly. But ess, most people's first hire is going to be someone to help out with the admin work. You'd be surprised at how many businesses get to 10, 20, 30, 40, 50k months and they're still doing the admin work. That needs to be handled by an admin or a virtual assistant or something like that. Second, someone to help with delivery. So if you have a program, you have a product, you have whatever it is, you need to have someone that helps with delivery. That's the second on the hiring ladder. And then it goes sales, marketing in reverse order or whatever you guys want to do first. And then there's leadership, which is the fifth pillar of it. So there is a hiring ladder. And I do recommend that everyone probably listening to this get some form of virtual assistant. Also incredible to learn the process of hiring. And it's a really good way to test your leadership skills and management skills before you start making, I'm going to say serious hires. And I don't mean that with any disrespect to any virtual assistants at the moment, but it's just a. It's a really good, like, first step.

Absolutely. The second step to not building a business that you hate is to work with clients you actually like. I think sometimes it's really easy just to pick a niche or a market that maybe has the money or seems like the right fit. So, for example, you might want to work With IT experts as an example, because it makes sense, because you know the industry, because you know the market. But if that doesn't light you up and you're gonna get bored talking to those people every day does not make sense to go with them. Likewise, if you are choosing a niche because you just know a lot of them. So, for example, a lot of people get into business and they just have a lot of mum friends, let's say, and they go, hey, I'm just gonna help mums with weight loss. And they might not have the. The money. They may not have the money that you want, so you may have to actually go after a different niche. Um, so it's just working with people that you like that make sense that are gonna bring. I mean, it's obviously important to work with clients you like and not just to chase the numbers like the metrics the money. Working with people you enjoy is going to make a massive difference to your day.

All right, step three is you want to set time limits on how much work you actually do each day. Because if you're just working 12, 13 hours a day and you stop when you just can't be fucked anymore, it gets pretty resentful pretty quickly. We had a client of ours and she messaged us and she said, does this ever stop? And the funny thing is, it never stops. There's always a to do list. There's always more to do, and you just need to set a time limit on what you do each day, otherwise you'd just be working forever. There's always more things to do, and every level has a new devil. And that's what you get to. You're like, as soon as I hit 50, 60, 70, 100k months, things are going to change. No, nothing changes the level of your problems. Just get to increase.

Setting timeless for your workday obviously brings us closer to the power list, which is about having five key items that you tick off every day. So it's just about organizing your to do list in a way where you tick off the things that matter first, and you prioritize those things first every single time. And I was reading an article by Tim Ferriss the other day, and he was saying that sometimes in order to prioritize the things that are actually going to grow the business, that means that you might drop the ball in other areas because you cannot do all things at once. And we are, at the end of the day, all human. So that might mean that you forget to pick up the milk, or that might mean that you don't Reply to that client as quickly as you should. Well, that might mean that you miss a deadline and you need to apologize for those things. But also, don't focus on not growing the business in order to make sure that every single other thing is always met, because it means that you'll never do anything.

Well, step five is install a revenue engine in your business. For us, a revenue engine is a marketing system that brings in enough leads and then the sales system to close those leads. Nothing more stressful and more resentful in your business when it isn't growing. And when businesses don't grow, they don't have a consistent way of getting clients in the door and then keeping those clients and delivering results for them. So you have to have a sales and marketing system that works consistently.

And the last thing is just to make it enjoyable, track your KPIs, because sometimes, you know, insert your feelings into your business and you're going to think of the business as a mess and that everything's fucked and that you don't want to work it anymore and it's too exhausting. But realistically, you might just be having a bad week or a bad day or a bad month, or in my case, it may just be that it's that time of the month and Tim's having to put up with me being particularly sassy about work.

Yeah, Red week is fucked. All right, guys, in summary, don't keep adding more when better is the real move. So you need to optimize what you're actually doing and optimize for better. Second, don't overwork, hoping that more effort and more work will fix things. It's all about Systems, processes, and SOPs.

Yeah. And don't make it harder than it needs to be. Remember that simple scales and complex fails and then don't disappear when it's not working. Like that is literally the time to double down. If it's not working, that means there's some stuff to be fixed. It doesn't mean you're broken. That doesn't mean you're a failure. It simply means that you need to find the problem problem, find the constraint, and solve it.

All right, so we're gonna get into a listening question today. This is from Jess. Just no last name on this. Thank you, producers. The question is, how do you know when it's the right time to hire help?

I love this question. I always say usually before, you need it now, and this is the case, it depends on what role you're hiring for. So I've actually got a couple of different answers to this, which is not concise at all. The first answer is with a VA before you need it, definitely, because it's gonna take you some time, especially if it's your first one to figure out who to hire, how to hire them, what you're gonna get them to do, to write the saps. It's gonna take some time. So I usually administrative work, like hire before you need it, because if you wait till you have enough clients to need a va, you're going to be drowning in client work and you're not going to be able to give them the onboarding that they require. However, if you're looking at something like a sales role, you wouldn't hire somebody like your next closer or your next salesperson until the rest of your team was already at 80% capacity. So you if you're looking at making a secondary hire. So maybe it's. You run a dietetics business and you're looking at hiring another dietitian. You would be looking at your team being 80% capacity before scaling up.

I think it's when. Well, sometimes this never happens, but you have expendable money in the business and you can hire for time. So you just essentially just want to get your time back.

Tim, what's the big mindset shift here that Jess needs?

Yeah, entrepreneurship and hiring is not a cost. It's almost a necessity to grow. You can't just do things on your own forever and expect to grow a million or multi million dollar business. Growth is about team, unfortunately. And most people need to come to terms with that. They need to hire a and it's almost about becoming a better manager and a leader. And that's how you grow a big business and make more money.

Absolutely.

Steph, do you want to give us the 60 second recap in full?

Okay, so quick recap. Audit your daily work. Work with people that you enjoy. Set hard time limits. So actually stop working. Get a powerless together five needle movers every day. Build your revenue engine and track your real numbers weekly. And if you're overwhelmed, it's not a work ethic problem. It is a systems problem.

Love that. All right, guys, if you got some value from it, just a reminder, hit that subscribe button on whatever platform you're at. It's been incredible. We'll see you next week.