S1: Welcome to business and the podcast for people making it
S1: all happen. Running a successful business completely takes over your life,
S1: but I'm a believer that there is still room for
S1: some ands like health, wealth, beauty, and maybe even some fashion.
S1: On this podcast, I'll share with you what's working for
S1: scaling my nine figure business while keeping you up to
S1: date on the latest trends, news and fun finds. This
S1: is a place for business and let's dive in! Are
S1: the hard truths for business owners about escaping the middle
S1: class trap and actually becoming wealthy. I know this because
S1: as a millionaire entrepreneur, I work with real business owners
S1: every day and they're stuck still grinding like employees. These
S1: are the hard truths that separate the millionaires from the burnouts.
S1: The first truth is that if you own a business,
S1: it actually owns you. Have you ever thought about what
S1: happens if you get hit by a bus? I know
S1: this is a little bit morbid, and you might be
S1: in the hospital and quite a bit of pain, but
S1: if you think about your business and what happens there,
S1: if you got hit by a bus, do you still
S1: make revenue? Do your team members still know what to do?
S1: Would your customers freak out because they weren't getting serviced?
S1: What would happen if you no longer were able to
S1: be there? That principle is how you should choose to
S1: run your business every single day. The creation of systems
S1: and processes have to be your priority because you could
S1: get hit by a bus. Now, I don't wish this
S1: on anybody, but it's a reality. Something bad could happen,
S1: but even better than something bad happening. Is something good happening,
S1: like taking a vacation? Wouldn't it be nice if you
S1: could step away from your business and have it run,
S1: and have it continue to grow and not have it
S1: slip backwards, all because you actually knew how to set
S1: up your business correctly. My simple trick for making processes
S1: effectively is recording what you do every day. So if
S1: you are on a call with clients and you know
S1: how to close the deal, record the call. If you
S1: are putting together some spreadsheet and making updates to what
S1: expenses you paid, record that entire process. When you record
S1: the most important things that you do when you bring
S1: new people on, it's very easy to get them up
S1: to speed because they can watch how you do it
S1: on two times speed and have a full process in
S1: place without it taking you any more time. The next
S1: truth is that your business may be making you money,
S1: but it's not making you wealthy if it's dependent upon you.
S1: So many business owners get stuck on this hamster wheel
S1: of increasing revenue, increasing profit. They're focused on growth, growth, growth, growth.
S1: But if the growth is dependent upon you, it doesn't matter.
S1: True wealth is not created from you being in the operations.
S1: Wealth is created through you owning something that's valuable. But
S1: if your time, your resources, your energy are focused and
S1: part of a valuable thing, you're stuck in it. Which
S1: means that you can't sell it, you can't exit it.
S1: And that's not creating wealth. It's just generating money. That
S1: brings us to truth number three. You're not actually focused
S1: on the real game. The biggest mistake entrepreneurs make chasing
S1: short term cash instead of structuring their business for long
S1: term value. Adding another million dollars in revenue this year
S1: is great, but you want to know what's better? Building
S1: something that is worth ten times in an exit. Have
S1: you really sat down and thought about, hmm, if I
S1: was to sell my business, what would be valuable about
S1: my business and how it's run in an exit? If
S1: you're not planning for the exit today, this is what happens.
S1: You eventually decide that you want to exit, but by
S1: the time you decide you want to exit, you haven't
S1: put the systems and processes in place and you haven't
S1: created the story, the valuable story that a future potential
S1: investor would be interested in would be captivated by. In
S1: order to pay more for your business. If your revenue
S1: goes up and down based off of how you choose
S1: to run your business, let's say one year you decide
S1: to take a six week long vacation and you know
S1: that your revenue plummets that year. Well, when an investor
S1: is looking at that over the course of a three
S1: year span, you're thinking, man, I got my revenue back
S1: up the next year. But they are going to see
S1: instantly when it took a dive. And then they're going
S1: to ask a really smart question, which is why did
S1: I take a dive? And you're going to know, shoot,
S1: it's because I took a vacation. It's because I stopped
S1: working as hard, which to the investor instantly tells them, oh,
S1: this business is dependent upon this person. Therefore, I'm either
S1: going to have to structure a nice long burnout so
S1: that you keep working in the business. Or I'm going
S1: to discount the value of this business because it's not
S1: worth that much if you leave. Neither one of these
S1: are great solutions. So what do you do instead? You
S1: switch your perspective to knowing that everything that you do
S1: in your business is creating a story for your exit.
S1: It doesn't matter if you're not exiting for ten years
S1: or 15 years from now. The story is being created
S1: through the financial impact. So the way that you make
S1: decisions and the products and services that you create cannot
S1: be dependent upon you. They have to be bigger than you.
S1: They have to be outside of you so that you
S1: can create true value. Next up is truth number four.
S1: You're focused on the wrong things. You have to shift
S1: your focus from making more money to keeping more value.
S1: The biggest winners in business aren't the ones who make
S1: the most. They're the ones who keep and reinvest the most.
S1: Your top line revenue means nothing if you are bleeding
S1: cash on bloated overhead, bad tax strategies, and inefficient systems.
S1: And this is why I am obsessed with systems and
S1: team efficiencies. The most successful business owners I know don't
S1: just make money, they know how to protect their money.
S1: One of the most painful mistakes that I see business
S1: owners make is they start making money. And when they
S1: start making money, they start to think, oh, I have
S1: a lot of money, which is cool in that moment
S1: for them, because they buy the fancy car, they start
S1: spending more money on their lifestyle, but all of a
S1: sudden they're defocused and now they're not doing what they
S1: used to do in order to generate money, and they're
S1: not doing what they used to do. They don't have
S1: excess capital to reinvest in the business. So then the
S1: business eventually stays steady and stops growing, and it might
S1: even decline because of the lack of focus on the
S1: business now. And so they find themselves in this problem
S1: where they had capital and they could have used the
S1: capital in order for them to fuel operations in order
S1: to fuel their growth, but instead they get distracted. Do
S1: not make this mistake. Do not get distracted. When you
S1: finally start making money, tell yourself that you're broke. Just
S1: say I'm broke. I can't touch this money. I'm broke.
S1: This money needs to stay in the business so I
S1: can reinvest in the right hires, in the right systems,
S1: in the right education for me to know what to
S1: do next so that I can fuel the next round
S1: of growth. Do not bleed out your business by spending
S1: a bunch of money when you're finally making money. Next
S1: up is number five, which is a personal favorite of mine.
S1: Why would you chase growth when you can buy it instead?
S1: Because the fastest way to ten-x your business growth is
S1: to buy the growth through mergers, acquisitions, and partnerships. When
S1: you think about Jeff Bezos and what he did at Amazon,
S1: do you remember how he grew it? Was it through
S1: campaigns and all of this internal effort, or did he
S1: buy entire industries? Think about Whole Foods. What about Zappos? See,
S1: Amazon grew through acquisitions, not just traditional marketing, traditional organic strategies,
S1: and one brick by brick building this business, you can
S1: grow quickly through acquiring other businesses and the biggest businesses
S1: do not scale just by working harder. Yes, they do
S1: work hard, but they also work smart. And the smart
S1: move is to start looking at acquiring your competitors or
S1: creating a joint venture where you can connect with somebody
S1: who has something that you don't have. Because remember that
S1: organic growth can be very slow and it traditionally is
S1: very expensive. When you have this mindset where you're going
S1: to switch into a different game, you're going to think
S1: about how is my competition? Not somebody that I need to, like,
S1: beat up, but somebody that I could align with or
S1: a potential partner that has a complementary business that has
S1: existing clients, existing leads that you could leverage, or maybe
S1: even a deal that comes from someplace that you might
S1: not be currently looking that could multiply your revenue. You're
S1: starting to think smart, and you also are working hard.
S1: These are my two favorite things to be. I'm going
S1: to be a hard worker, but I'm also going to
S1: work very smart. And I'm going to add revenue and
S1: strategic ways. One of our favorite sayings at Cardinal Ventures
S1: is collaboration. Is the new currency. There is no reason
S1: in this day and age to not be collaborating with people.
S1: If you're not collaborating with people, that might be a
S1: little bit of an ego situation that you got going on,
S1: because there's no shortage of opportunities. And the fastest way
S1: to do something is to collaborate. But if you want
S1: to do it all by yourself, that is the slow way.
S1: That is the hard way. And it takes the longest,
S1: which actually might increase your chances of failing. Why wouldn't
S1: you just collaborate and increase your chances of actually being successful?
S1: That brings us to number six. Your industry will not
S1: look the same in five years from now. So if
S1: you're not reinventing, acquiring, or diversifying, you're going to get
S1: left behind. The number one piece of advice I give
S1: to business owners is do it scared. The market doesn't
S1: care how hard you've worked. It only cares about who
S1: adapts the fastest. How are you leveraging AI? How are
S1: you adapting your customer service models? Your ability to generate
S1: leads based off of the market today? Do you spend
S1: a lot of time doing this if you don't as
S1: a business owner in 2025. I promise you, you are
S1: going to get left behind because all of a sudden
S1: we are going to wake up in a world in
S1: 2035 where things look very different. And if you get
S1: ahead of this, you can be a part of the growth.
S1: If you decide to hang back and to say, I'm
S1: already doing too much, I'm already overwhelmed. I can't take
S1: anything new on. You're going to find yourself in a
S1: very difficult position in a matter of ten years from now.
S1: So depending on where your lifespan is and what your
S1: career is and what you're looking to do with your business,
S1: I would hop on these things now. It would be
S1: like the person who decided only to advertise in yellow
S1: pages back in the day and not learn anything about
S1: the internet. The internet was coming. They could have been
S1: buying Google AdWords, but instead they put all of their
S1: money into Yellow Pages because it was working. It was trusted,
S1: it was what everybody was doing. But fast forward today,
S1: that would be a waste of money. There would be
S1: no real reason to invest your hard earned marketing dollars
S1: into Yellow Pages. Why the internet exists. Social media exists.
S1: Google exists. So don't think of this time right now,
S1: especially if you're having some success, as I'm just going
S1: to keep doing what I'm doing because the world is
S1: changing and is changing rapidly. How are you getting in
S1: front of AI? If you haven't done this already, I
S1: would recommend you type this prompt into ChatGPT. Based on
S1: my business that does x, how should I start today
S1: to leverage AI across my operations and build me a
S1: three month roadmap for how I would integrate AI to
S1: make my business more effective and ahead of the curve.
S1: And you are going to watch this magical list of
S1: things unfold about how specific roles can use AI, about
S1: how your processes can be optimized, and it is going
S1: to be the launchpad for you to start thinking about
S1: how you re-engineer the way that your business does work.
S1: And don't be scared of it. Ask it follow up
S1: questions so that you can use it. You can partner
S1: with it to help you get ahead of this because
S1: it's coming regardless, so you might as well make it
S1: your best friend. That brings us to the final truth,
S1: which is to really know who you're building this business for.
S1: Is it for yourself or is it for others? You
S1: might have originally started your business because you were escaping something.
S1: You were running away from a job that you didn't like,
S1: and you just decided to create a business as an alternative?
S1: That is awesome. Congratulations on being an entrepreneur. But it
S1: can't stop there because as a business owner, there are
S1: a lot of people who are depending upon you and
S1: there is a significant amount of responsibility that you have.
S1: And if you're not taking into consideration all of the
S1: people who depend on you to have a plan, then
S1: you are being very irresponsible. Your plan for how you
S1: exit your business. Your plan for how you set your
S1: business up for success directly impacts the people who trust you.
S1: So when you think about who you're building this business for,
S1: I hope you choose yourself and others. You choose the
S1: life that you want to live, the income that you
S1: want to create, the impact that you want to have,
S1: while also choosing to build a great business for the
S1: purpose of impacting other people, both your customers and your
S1: team members. If your business can't survive without you, you
S1: are not protecting any of these people and you're actually
S1: putting them at risk. You have to remember to make
S1: sure every single day that the decisions that you make,
S1: the products that you create, the services that you have,
S1: can run without you. This is the only way that
S1: you actually build wealth and escape the trap of the
S1: middle class. I get why this is challenging. It's challenging
S1: because today you have to prioritize what you need to
S1: do in the future. All while today it feels like
S1: things are on fire. As a business owner, I get it.
S1: There are problems, there are challenges. There are things that
S1: go wrong every single day that feel like you have
S1: to put your energy and attention on them. Without that,
S1: it feels like maybe your business won't even exist in
S1: six months from now, much less in five years from now.
S1: I get the difficulty, but here's the reality you can
S1: build your business for the future while still solving problems
S1: for today. And it is just a simple mindset shift.
S1: You have to have a plan. You have to have
S1: a strategy. You have to know what is valuable in
S1: a business and start taking those actions, such as putting
S1: processes in place, creating clarity on your products and services
S1: and how somebody sells them without you even involved. These
S1: simple things help set your business up for success and
S1: allow it to grow. And you are going to be
S1: amazed at your ability to step out of your business
S1: once you start building everything with this frame of mind.
S1: If you enjoyed this podcast, you are going to definitely
S1: not want to miss out on my new newsletter. It
S1: just dropped. I just started creating this content and I
S1: am obsessed. Every single week in your inbox I'm going
S1: to send you business. And which is exactly what it
S1: sounds like. How do you fit business and all of
S1: the other things in your life so that you are
S1: up to speed on fashion, beauty, wellness, all things that
S1: really matter. If you want to subscribe and get this
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