S1: Welcome back to Building Billions. It has been way too
S1: long since I dropped an episode, and I'm excited to
S1: talk about all of the things because all of the
S1: things are why I haven't dropped an episode. And so
S1: one of the series I started when this podcast began,
S1: began begun. You get the point. One of the one
S1: of the series that I love that we're going to
S1: go into today is we just ended March. It's literally
S1: the beginning of April. It's it's April 3rd as I'm
S1: recording this and I love to do a month in
S1: review of what I learned because the intention behind this
S1: podcast is to take you behind the scenes with me
S1: as we grow this business from start up to over
S1: $1 billion in value over the next 36 months. And
S1: so I want to be really transparent and honest about
S1: the things that happened behind the scenes that you don't
S1: necessarily see on the tick tock on the Instagram, on
S1: the YouTube for changes and pivots and growth and development
S1: that's happening in the background. And so part of that is, man,
S1: what the heck happened in March? So things I learned
S1: in March. Ready, set, go. This was a big theme
S1: of March, and it was actually probably a big theme
S1: of the last six months. But it came to a
S1: head in March. And this piece is called Don't be reasonable.
S1: Do not Be Reasonable. And I hear Grant talk about
S1: not being reasonable all the time as it relates to
S1: your goals. Like be just totally unreasonable as it relates
S1: to your goals. That reason should not be something that
S1: you use as a filtering mechanism to establish targets to
S1: go after goals like just be unreasonable, which I love.
S1: But there's this other side of being reasonable, which is
S1: you allow things, people decisions, negativity, time wasted in your
S1: life and you are reasonable with it. Meaning you give
S1: a reason for why that's happening and why you let
S1: it happen and you don't take cause over the situation.
S1: You're just reasonable. You allow it to happen. And in
S1: the month of March, there were a handful of things
S1: that just built that it had been building that I
S1: had to confront and say, Hey, I'm no longer going
S1: to be reasonable. I am not allowing this. This is
S1: not going to be in my environment. This is not
S1: going to be in my professional life. This is not
S1: going to be in a contributing factor financially for me. Like,
S1: I am not going to be reasonable. I'm not going
S1: to let this continue to occur. And for you, when
S1: you're thinking about the things that you let in your
S1: life where you're reasonable, do you have team members on
S1: your team that you know are the wrong people? They
S1: are the wrong players. They are negative. Maybe they talk
S1: about you behind your back, they undermine you, they go rogue.
S1: They do things that you've allowed them to do, but
S1: that you're not actually comfortable with. If any of that
S1: is happening, you're being reasonable. So stop being reasonable. It
S1: is your company, it is your business, it is your life.
S1: And even if you're a team member and you're like,
S1: it is not my business and I can't I can't
S1: make a change, you can always be cause in your
S1: life you can always make a change. And the more
S1: that you allow yourself to be reasonable, even on the
S1: littlest things where you just make little like you cut
S1: corners and you like skirt around issues, that's being reasonable.
S1: And when you really can confront that, you are being reasonable.
S1: That's the first step. I am being reasonable right now
S1: about the situation. I am being reasonable about this person.
S1: I am being reasonable about this product or this service,
S1: or I'm being reasonable about this behavior in my marriage.
S1: Whatever it is, whatever you're being reasonable about, you just
S1: kind of made sense of it. But it bothers you,
S1: acknowledge that you are being reasonable. That's the first step.
S1: You have to acknowledge that you have tolerated this. It
S1: doesn't matter how long you've been doing it, you just
S1: have to say, Hey, this is how I've been operating
S1: and moving forward. I am going to change my operating basis.
S1: I am no longer going to operate like this and
S1: I do not care the consequences that are going to
S1: come if they're professionally, if they're personally, if they're financially.
S1: I do not care what the consequences are, because the
S1: greatest consequence is you being reasonable because it's just it
S1: sets this snowball effect. And the snowball effect can be
S1: one of the most damaging things to the confidence of
S1: a business owner when you have a team member who's
S1: on your team but really isn't acting like they're on
S1: your team. You're allowing that person to run amok inside
S1: your environment. But then what else are they creating? What
S1: else are you allowing? Because oh, I know that if
S1: Jerry does it, then that probably means that Melanie's doing
S1: it too, and then Roger's going to do it. And
S1: now I have a team of people who are doing
S1: something that I'm not comfortable with. But I didn't stop
S1: it because I really like Jerry or Jerry was a
S1: family member. Like, stop being reasonable. Natalie is no longer
S1: reasonable with her environment. And that was a big, tough
S1: lesson in March, but one that I know I'm going
S1: to look back in 18 to 36 months from now
S1: and say, I am so thankful for, I guess, having
S1: it be brought to light that I'm being unreasonable because
S1: I'm so hyper aware of this now. And it's not
S1: going to be the thing that stops me from getting
S1: to the next level. Whereas the reasonableness could have stopped
S1: me from getting to the next level. But now I'm
S1: freaking on my game. Like this has just taken me
S1: to a whole nother level. But it took gutting up
S1: to this reasonable peace and taking accountability and owning my
S1: role and just turning into this thing that I didn't
S1: want to be and I didn't think I wanted to become.
S1: But out of necessity, I am now. And it's really great.
S1: I'm really I'm ending March on a good note. Number
S1: two second lesson I learned in March There is always
S1: a solution. There is always, always, always a solution. Even
S1: to the things that you think There is no solution.
S1: It is black or white. There's nothing in between. I
S1: don't like option A, I don't like option B, Those
S1: are my only two options. There is always a solution.
S1: And I learned this. I learned this through Grant and
S1: Brandon over the last few weeks because in my mind
S1: we're handling a situation at work where I saw it
S1: one way and it was the only way that it
S1: could go from my perspective. And it was fascinating because
S1: when I brought Brandon into the fold and when I
S1: brought Grant into the fold with this product inside Cardinal Ventures,
S1: they're like, Well, there's option C, d, e, f, G, Hell,
S1: there's option like 462. Like we're not just operating out
S1: of letters. There's there's there's there's numbers. There's a whole
S1: different way of of even conceiving the solution. And I
S1: do think that's the value of having mentors and having
S1: people in your life who can push you to think
S1: bigger and think differently because getting stuck in a single
S1: solution and thinking that you're so emotionally attached to this
S1: one solution, it's never real. There's always multiple solutions and
S1: different ways that you can create and be better and
S1: have more affluence and have a greater effect than whatever.
S1: The thing is that you might be holding on to
S1: that actually is a loss. And so that's that was
S1: the situation with us. I was thinking that we were
S1: going to have to get rid of this thing and
S1: Grant and Brandon were like, Well, we could do it
S1: in these 2500 other ways, and this is how we
S1: could get creative and we could get creative in this way.
S1: And as much as I push back, it had all
S1: of my reasons because I thought of those things too.
S1: They were just more creative. And that's why they're at
S1: where they're at in life. And I'm again so thankful
S1: to have mentors who really can hone in me. There's
S1: not just one solution, and we can make the outcome
S1: actually better than your first proposed solution. You were not stuck.
S1: Our hands are not tied. We are not victims. We're
S1: going to figure it out. And the way that they
S1: did this was just freaking masterful. So remember, there's never
S1: just one solution. There's always multiple solutions. And you should
S1: get excited about what the potential solution is because it
S1: should be so exciting. And there's more opportunity than you're
S1: even thinking with If you feel like you're stuck right now,
S1: which I know a lot of business owners, a lot
S1: of leaders do get stuck and they're really wrestling with
S1: how do I go from 800,000 to 8 million? Like,
S1: I can't even think with it because you're likely so
S1: stuck inside the business doing your one function, your one role.
S1: Everybody's dependent upon you, and yet somebody else could come
S1: into your business and say, Oh my gosh, I could
S1: see how you could do 80 million or 800,000,000in this
S1: industry and this product and this service. So that's just
S1: something to keep in mind. There's always another solution based
S1: on what your target is. Next up, number three, use logic.
S1: Do not use emotion. And if you are emotional, don't.
S2: Say a word.
S1: Do not even open your mouth. Emotion kills business. It
S1: should be so logical the way that you make decisions,
S1: the way that you attack problems, the way that you
S1: fix something that's going wrong inside your business. And yet
S1: it feels so emotional. Sometimes it feels like, Oh, there's
S1: all of this stuff that happened and these are the
S1: things that are going wrong and it matters to you.
S1: What I love about business owners who do get emotional
S1: is it shows the passion, it shows the care. It
S1: shows the real dynamic behind how important the success of
S1: the team and the business and the client success really
S1: is to the business owner. And that's oftentimes where the
S1: emotion comes from. But if you're still feeling emotional when
S1: you're having the conversation, you have to wait until you're
S1: not emotional any longer. And even if you think that
S1: there's a time constraint to make the decision, there is
S1: always the ability to wait. And if you put this
S1: policy in place that you do not have conversations in
S1: business about your business with people that you're frustrated with
S1: in your business while you are still emotional, that is
S1: one of the best policies that you can put in place.
S1: I do not get emotional very often. I do not.
S1: I've never yelled. I think there's been like three times
S1: I've yelled inside working in this whole ten X ecosystem.
S1: Like I'm not I don't get frustrated with the team.
S1: I'm very logical. But there are moments where I can
S1: get emotional. And there were actually a handful of moments
S1: where I got just emotional in. One thing that I
S1: know about myself is when I do get emotional, I
S1: have the tendency, I have the propensity in that emotion
S1: to want to just like call someone. I'm a high
S1: influencer on the risk assessment. I'm a high influencer. So like,
S1: I want to pick up the phone. I want to
S1: be like, Oh my gosh, this happened and this happened
S1: and it's the wrong thing to do. And I've learned this.
S1: I learned this very early on in my career where
S1: you are not friends with your team members. You should
S1: not be calling up your team members when any problem
S1: happens in your business just to vent about it. They
S1: are not the people that you're supposed to vent to.
S1: The people you're supposed to vent to are really yourself.
S1: Like you should be able to help solve your own problems.
S1: And if you have that tendency when you are emotional,
S1: you cannot talk to the stakeholder while you're still emotional.
S1: If you're going to fire somebody, do not fire them
S1: when you're emotional. It should be black and white. If
S1: you're going to have a corrective conversation in your business,
S1: wait until the emotion is done. Now, I'm not saying
S1: wait two weeks or three weeks like this is the
S1: other part two of this lesson. That is number three.
S1: But you should you should wait until you're not emotional. However,
S1: learn how to regulate your emotions to where it doesn't
S1: take four days for you to get over something. It
S1: doesn't take six days. It's not a whole month until
S1: you're not emotional about it. If you're frustrated about something,
S1: you should be able to cool off in a matter
S1: of 90 seconds. That should be your target. 90 seconds
S1: at least through a good night's sleep. I always know
S1: if that's my backup plan. I'm like, I'm just going
S1: to sleep on it. But if an issue happens at
S1: 9 a.m. in the morning, like you don't have time,
S1: there's not enough hours in the day for you to
S1: to sit from 9 a.m. until the next morning. That's
S1: a whole freaking 24 hours. You do not have 24
S1: hours to waste on being emotional about something. So learn
S1: how to make that faster, but sleep on it. It
S1: isn't fixed. When you've slept on it, you have an
S1: issue with regulating your emotions and making a decision to
S1: move off of something. So learn that process of emotional
S1: regulation and get off of the emotion so that you're
S1: able to just say, Hey, this is what happened. I'm
S1: not okay with how this happened. This is the impact
S1: of that decision. And unfortunately, because of that, XYZ needs
S1: to take place. And it's not a battle. It's not
S1: a fight. It's just logic. It's pure logic. And that
S1: is one of the most beautiful things that you can
S1: do as a business owner or as a leader to
S1: set your team up for success because they're going to
S1: be watching how you handle the hard things. And the
S1: hard things should be handled logically, the hard things. That
S1: is the last situation, the last type of involvement that
S1: you should be having when it's hard is an emotional one.
S1: And walk by and distracted me. But now I'm back.
S1: I think I ended that sentence. Okay, we're going to
S1: keep moving. Number four always be navigating what's wanted versus
S1: what's needed from you. I spend a lot of time
S1: thinking about where I'm spending my time and energy in
S1: our organization, and I flip between these two things of
S1: what is wanted, like what would what what's wanted of
S1: Natalie as the president of Cartoon Ventures, as the president
S1: of ten Health, with all of the partnerships that we
S1: have in our HVAC businesses and our plumbing businesses and
S1: our pasta business and our manufacturing business, like what is
S1: wanted of Natalie, because there's a whole long list, but
S1: I only have time to address the wants once I
S1: have completed my role for what is needed from me.
S1: Like where do I need to spend my time? Wants
S1: are great, needs are the priority. And so over the
S1: last month I have not been as good. I've recording
S1: podcasts because I have been needed in other areas of
S1: my business. Having a podcast is great. I love recording
S1: these podcasts. I love this content. I know that it's
S1: helping people and I get a lot of fulfillment. And
S1: also we get clients through this podcast. However, it is
S1: not a need for me, it is a want and
S1: so I've put that on pause for a couple of weeks.
S1: It's not forever and I know how to prioritize my time,
S1: but it was put on pause. Now my book is
S1: entirely put on pause. Right now I'm at like the
S1: I don't know what the sports analogy would be. Maybe
S1: like the 80 yard line, the 95 yard line. I'm
S1: in the homestretch. We'll we'll switch sports teams there or
S1: sports altogether. I'm in the homestretch on my book but
S1: it would be irresponsible for me to be working on
S1: my book because it's a want and it's not a need.
S1: And right now, the needs that are of my role
S1: inside our businesses is greater than what's wanted. And I
S1: know that the book is going to help so many people.
S1: In fact, I just taught our Leadership Essentials Workshop over
S1: this last weekend. Speaking of if you're interested, you should
S1: go to our next one. It's freaking amazing. You can
S1: go to Cardinal ventures.com/leadership to sign up for our next
S1: Leadership Essentials workshop. And over the time that I was speaking,
S1: all of the questions that were being asked have to
S1: do with the next topic of my book. And I
S1: was so frustrated that I couldn't just say, Oh my gosh,
S1: when you just instead of me explaining how to do this,
S1: just go to Chapter four in my book and you'll
S1: be able to handle this whole situation. I so desperately
S1: want to be able to say that. But right now
S1: that's a want and it's not a need. Now, the
S1: book will come out and I will find time, and
S1: that's just part of going through seasons. And there will
S1: be some seasons in your business that are much more
S1: challenging and much more difficult than others. So that would
S1: be the final piece of what I learned in March.
S1: March was a rough season for me. I have a
S1: feeling that April is is not going to be quite
S1: as rough. March was was a rough month, although April
S1: could could surprise me. You just never know. But the
S1: reality is all of the problems inside an organization, they
S1: happen in seasons. It is not like it is always hard,
S1: but if you are a leader, you have to know
S1: that it is actually your job to solve the hard things.
S1: That's your role. Your role isn't to be the nice person.
S1: Your role isn't to be this figurehead. Your role isn't
S1: just to create rah rah energy. Your role is to
S1: get into the the biggest, deepest, most difficult problems inside
S1: your organization that nobody else can solve but you. And
S1: you solve those problems in order to help the organization grow.
S1: And so I do view that as my role each
S1: and every day of it is going to be a marathon.
S1: I'm maybe at mile at the end of mile one
S1: right now. It's going to be a marathon of solving
S1: problems and giving guidance on the things that are either
S1: team members don't know how to solve, aren't as interested
S1: in solving, don't even know what the direction is around
S1: the problem that they're solving. So that's my role is
S1: to to really dive into those deep problems, figure those
S1: problems out. And then once those problems are solidified, you
S1: move to the next set of problems. And so you
S1: can't begrudge the problems when you're a leader like that
S1: is the role. The role is solving really difficult problems.
S1: And if somebody else could solve the problems, then you
S1: would just go into another set of problems. And I
S1: think that's oftentimes why entrepreneurs get a little discouraged. And
S1: brand and I were able to laugh at this at
S1: the end of last week because here all of our
S1: businesses had their best quarters in the history of our company.
S1: And like by a lot like screaming quarters. Fantastic results.
S1: And yet all I feel like is that I've got
S1: punched in the face. Which is fine because that's the job.
S1: The job is, hey, we're doing great, but these things
S1: need to be fixed and somebody has to put their
S1: attention on getting these things fixed. And if we were
S1: sitting back just saying, Oh wow, look at how great
S1: we're doing. That's good for staying at the level that
S1: we're at right now. But the target isn't having this
S1: quarter forevermore be the best quarter. It's to have that
S1: for next quarter and the next quarter and the next
S1: quarter and then in two years from now and then
S1: in five years from now, in order to create that
S1: kind of growth, you have to be consuming yourself with
S1: the problems that have to be solved inside your business.
S1: And for some of you, those problems are marketing. For
S1: some of you, those problems are leadership. Some of them
S1: are ops and fulfillment. Some of them might be finance
S1: and accounting wherever the problems are. That's where you need
S1: to be. And I'm telling you, it's okay to live
S1: in that you can have a moment of celebration. I
S1: think Brian and I cheered like a couple cans of
S1: Diet Sprite over the weekend. We're like, Hey, nicely done. Like,
S1: this is this is so awesome. How fantastic. And then
S1: we got right back into talking about whatever the problem
S1: is that we need to handle in order to move
S1: that problem on so that then we can handle the
S1: next problem. And that is building and scaling a business.
S1: And it's okay. It's your job with that. Appreciate you
S1: for listening to Building Billions. I am excited to continue
S1: to create great content. If you found value in this,
S1: if you know another entrepreneur, please send this their way.
S1: And it would also mean the world to me if
S1: you left a review. I read every single reviews. The
S1: reviews mean the world to me. If you just spent
S1: 15 seconds writing up a review, wherever you listen to
S1: your podcasts, I will read it. I will. Thank you.
S1: And that is the encouragement that I love in order
S1: to keep this thing rolling. So with that, be great.
S1: See you on the next episode.