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Soar with your strengths. It’s valid. I believe in it. Strongly. But…

Every small business is prone to stagnation. And it’s not restricted to businesses that have been around for a very long time. Stagnation can happen more quickly than we think. 

Small business ownership isn’t just mom ‘n pop shops. It’s the $50M manufacturing business. It’s the $3M retail shop. It’s the $127M custom home builder. It’s the $225M car dealer. 

Water stagnates when it stops flowing. Ditto for your small business. When growth stops, when improvement isn’t highly pursued and when innovation ceases…you’re stagnant. It’s time for an infusion of what you’re lacking. And I’m not talking about capital (although your stagnation has likely resulted in cash flow pressures and a restriction in resources, including capital). 

Ideas.

Routine. Sameness. Staying the course. 

These are just a few of the many enemies you face in your small business. Yes, boredom results, but there’s a deeper – more powerful – enemy, ideas stop flowing. Stagnation.

Questions.

History. Not as in learning from it, but as in trying to hang onto it. Living in the past. Every successful business has to face this threat.

Too much time spent admiring previous accomplishments freezes us. Makes us hesitate. 

Easton is my 5-year-old grandson. He just started playing T-ball. He’ll hit the ball, but he won’t immediately drop the bat and run to first. He’ll learn that he can’t afford to look where the ball is going before dashing to first. 

The enemy is we stop asking questions. Especially tough questions. 

We assume that what once worked – or what worked in the past – is going to keep on working. Those assumptions coerce us to not see the slow erosion of effectiveness of our past. 

Curiosity.

This is especially threatening to our business if we’ve been in the industry for very long. We tend to think we’ve figured it all out if we’ve been in a space for a few years. All the dots in our industry have been figured out. Or so we think. 

Curiosity ends up being replaced by a “know-it-all” false confidence. It’s why so many industries get disrupted by newbies. Spend some time with 2-3-year-old kids and you’ll quickly get a lesson in curiosity. And you’ll also see why it’s so easy to lose it. Arrogance and pride. Too many small business owners are ashamed or embarrassed to be curious. They wrongly think it’s better to act like you’ve you’ve got all the answers. 

Ambition.

We get fat and happy. Laziness stifles accomplishment. Hunger is a powerful source of inspiration. Contentment is fine at the individual level, but it’ll kill a culture of accomplishment inside your small business. 

The big payday – success – has wrecked quite a lot of potential greatness. It’s a rare bird who can climb really high and still believe there’s a higher elevation left to discover. Most of us prefer to rest and enjoy the view. 

What do we do? How do we avoid stagnation in our small business?

One, don’t embrace loyalty over performance.

Don’t hate me. I’m not talking about booting people just for the sake of it. But I am talking about not getting so loyal to people in your business that you avoid tough scrutiny. 

“Mary has been here 15 years. We can’t get rid of Mary.” That dog won’t hunt if Mary isn’t contributing enough to the company. Sorry, but unless you’ve decided to morph your small business into a non-profit or make it a charitable enterprise, Mary may need to go. 

If your culture has stagnated into a loyalty-over-performance culture…you’re in trouble. Instead, be loyal to performance!

Two, get and maintain a diverse team.

Are you an owner who enjoys being surrounded by folks who agree with every idea you have? It’s okay to admit it. It’s death to keep it though. You need contrarians. 

When I say “diverse” I don’t mean you limit it to the stereotypical categories based on gender or race. I mean in any and every category, perhaps especially based on experience. Don’t always look for the person who has the experience you think you need. This drives me mad – literally angry – when I sit down with HR people or top-level leaders whose go-to-move is the person with 5 years industry experience, an MBA or whatever else they think is most needed. It’s wrong and lazy! Translation: we want to hire somebody we don’t have to train or serve. We want somebody who can hit the ground running. When you do that, you lose everything I’ve talked about. Ideas. Questions. Curiosity. Ambition. 

Look at people who have no experience in your space, but they have experiences, skills, and talents that may be easily adaptable to your environment. I know why you don’t do it. You’re stuck. You’re following the leader instead of being a leader. And you’re lazy, settling for the quick fix instead of putting in the work to push yourself and your company to new heights.

Three, lead by example. 

As the owner, you’re the top dog. The team takes their cues from you. They know how you roll. And what they know may be very different than how you think you roll. Don’t fool yourself. You can fancy yourself to be something you’re not. Many business owners do. 

Get real with yourself. Ideas, questions, curiosity, and ambition begin with YOU. 

It’s all too common for small business owners to feel like they embrace all these things, but when you talk with team members you hear just the opposite. Every small business owner needs a reality check. You need somebody – or a group of somebodies – willing and able to help you grow as a business owner and leader. 

We all have blind spots. And weaknesses. And strengths. The more we shore up our weaknesses, the more we bet on our strengths and the more we eliminate our blind spots…the better we’ll be. Our growth, improvement and transformations as business owners has a direct impact on the growth of our business. It seems so obvious, but so many business owners devote very little time or money investing in themselves. Partly because they don’t think they need it. Partly because they’re unaware that the path to greatness is humility – the realization that there’s always so much left to learn, and so much more left to accomplish. 

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

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Let’s talk about OTHER PEOPLE. During the early years of my career OPM entered every business person’s vocabulary. It stood for “Other People’s Money.” This was long before business people were the heroes. And it was really before VC’s (venture capitalists) were legendary. The goal of business owners who had a business that seemed scalable was the IPO (Initial Public Offering). We all dreamed of what it might be like to “go public.” That’s where the big money was, taking your company public and being listed on the stock market. It was the path to get your chips off the table and cash out a portion of your equity. 

Money is great. We all want more of it, but when I talk about the power of others I don’t want to restrict it mere dollars because there are other things that have even higher value. Money will fix some things, but it won’t fix everything. It won’t solve every business problem. It won’t solve very many personal or private problems. It’s a great resource, but it’s not more valuable to us than the help and support we can get from other people. Particularly, people who get us and our situation. People who can actually do something other than listen to us. People who can help us think more clearly. People who can ask us questions that foster better answers. And people willing to hold us accountable to the very things we most want to accomplish. 

Other people improve every facet of our lives. We have to make sure we’re surrounded by the right ones – the ones who can best serve us. Ironically, those are also the people who will accept our help. That give and take relationship makes it a very special thing — to have others encircling us and to have others allow us to be part of the group surrounding them. 

You know what I love about the business world today versus when I was breaking in? Connection, collaboration and cooperation. It didn’t exist much when I was younger. We were competitive. Sometimes even hostile. We thought the world was a zero-sum game, meaning if we lost then it meant somebody else won. And if we won (which was always the goal), then somebody necessarily lost. That proverbial pie everybody was chasing was a finite thing. A fixed size. Nobody thought about growing the pie. We only thought about our ability to get our piece. The biggest piece possible. 

If you were born in the last 30 plus years, you’ve learned how wrong we were. You’ve learned how big the markets are, how many customers are available, how other people are THE path to greater accomplishments, opportunities, and success. 

This is at the heart of my career change with The Peer Advantage by Bula Network. 

Have you ever gone through some really tough time? Maybe it was personal and private. Maybe it was completely business-related. Maybe both. 

Something that wrecked you. Caused you to lose sleep. Lots of it. Something that caused you to lose your appetite. Something that vexed you night and day. You couldn’t get your mind off of it. 

Jason Isbell released a song in 2013 on his album, Southeastern. It was entitled Elephant. A sad, awful song about a woman with terminal cancer, something that has afflicted many of us. Try as we might, cancer defines so many people. Not what we want. Or what we hope. But those who suffer it know it’s the constant topic of every conversation. 

We all have elephants who occupy the rooms of our lives. Dominate our minds and hearts. 

Try as we might, they don’t leave us alone. Big, imposing creatures impossible to ignore. That’s what our elephants represent. 

For you, it may be something that awful as cancer. Your own, or a loved one.

It may be a child you fret about 24/7. Or a spouse.

It may be a particular business challenge you just can’t figure out. Or one that worries you enormously. 

Elephants. Only a fool deals with them alone. Others – trusted confidants help. 

You’re not likely intentional about the others in your life. If you’re like 99% of business owners – or any humans – then you bravely try to act like you don’t need any help. Secretly, you crave it though. You privately wish you had some people you could lean on. People who don’t judge you…they just help you. Not by telling you what you should do, but people who help you clearly assess the situation and make sure you’re seeing it accurately. People who care only about your success because they know life isn’t a zero-sum game. They know when they face their elephant, you’ll be there to help them. It’s mutual service and it’s insanely powerful. Extraordinary. Remarkable. 

You’re tired of going it alone. Problems, issues, and opportunities deserve to be addressed with wisdom, thoughtfulness, experience, and insights. 

That, my friends, is the power of others. Others lift us higher. Sustain us when we’re down. Resurrect us when we feel like we’re both down and out. Speed us up when we’re dragging. Slow us down we’re speeding out of control. They do for us what we’re unable to do for ourselves! 

Aren’t you ready to join the most elite people on the planet? The people who have learned that by leveraging the power of others they can grow their business, their leadership and their lives. Then figure it out. Find a way to surround yourself with powerful people. I’m working on just 2 answers — two groups of 7 business owners from around America who can do for others what they can’t do alone. And who can have done for them what only others can do! Visit ThePeerAdvantage.com for more details. 

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

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Acting & Feeling Your Age/Experience

I don’t feel much different than I did when I was a teenager. Kids don’t realize that in 20 years they’re not going to feel much different. And today, a 40-year-old or 60-year-old doesn’t look remotely like they did when I was a kid. Google pictures of the 1960’s compared to a picture of today. You’ll notice the differences. 

Is it culture? Modern health practices? Modern medicine? All of that, and more? Yes. 

I grew up hearing older folks tell us, as kids, to act our age. Of course, when you’re 16 you feel and think you’re acting like a 16-year-old. Honestly, you likely are acting your age. The older people want you to act older, which means they want you to act like you’ve got way more experience, wisdom, and thoughtfulness than exists in your life. 

Fake is fun, but it’s fatal.

I’m mature. I’m not old. I’m at my best right now…at this moment. 

I’ve got decades of real-world operating businesses experience and know-how, the stuff you can’t learn any other way than by doing it. 

I’ve got decades of wisdom that I didn’t have earlier, but I’m still driven by the curiosity of the things I know I need to still learn.

I’m not alone. Draw a timeline that can represent a lifetime. Make marks at 18, 24, 30, 36…and on. Every mark, every age, and experience brings value. My current value is what it is. But it’s not like my value just kicked in. 

Age and experience are realities that too many people get messed up on. Young people want to be older. Older people want to be younger. Both sometimes want to act the opposite of what they are. Or where they are. 

It’s why there’s so much fakery. We wrongly think we can fool people. Forget it. Even if you do fool people, remember you’ve only fooled the fools. 

Owning your present reality isn’t a cop-out. It doesn’t mean you don’t grow, feed your curiosities, or devote yourself fully to the mountain climb! Fact is, that’s exactly what it does mean. You do all that and more. You create, innovate, disrupt and learn — all aimed at your own life first. 

What you’ve figured out is important. What you haven’t figured out may be more important. At the heart of it all is figuring out YOU. I’m focusing on this as I return from being dormant for about a month because I continue to see people posing as something they’re genuinely not. From executives seeking new opportunities, to leaders who are finding it difficult to mimic somebody they admire, to business owners who feel the urge to jump on every latest technical tactic or strategy, even the ones they’ve not spent enough time to fully understand. It’s a big game of people grasping at straws. And it makes no sense to me.

Plus, there’s a ton of people looking for positive reinforcement for every dumb idea they’ve got. The lack of candor and accountability is the death of too many already. 

So people puff up to inflate themselves, like puffer fish trying to scare off predators. Pretending to be better, bigger, more sophisticated, more successful than they really are. It’s an addiction that will end poorly, but in the short-term, it feels great. We’re deluded. Not thinking clearly.

Reality is the recipe, the counter punch needed. 

Feeling good in the short-term produces long-term pain and guilt. Scan the Wall Street Journal, randomly looking at companies reporting performance. If the results are positive, you’ll hear company officials talk a certain way. But if the results are lackluster, or poor, you’ll get complex language aimed at avoiding responsibility and accountability. The blame game is popular when you want to avoid reality. 

What does this mean for you and your business? Or your leadership?

Do what is necessary to get a clear mind. Discover the truth.

We usually know when our vision isn’t quite right because we know what seeing clearly looks like. But it’s possible to ignore the signs and over time we don’t realize just how blind we are. Enter the eye exam or test. It’s a way for us to know – not think, but to really know – that our vision isn’t what it should be. We’re not seeing things clearly. 

Our business ownership and leadership need that kind of scrutiny so we know we’re seeing things as they are, not as we hope them to be. You can take a number of actions to help. I’m going to suggest you start communicating with your people. Candor and listening are key. Be frank in communicating what you’re hoping to accomplish – a quest to discover the truth. You want the truth of what’s right, what’s wrong, what needs to be fixed, what needs to be enhanced, what needs to stop…you want the most open dialogue you can foster. That’s going to be hard if you’ve never done it before because people are going to be mistrustful. You’re going to have to prove to everybody how serious you are. 

Ask questions, then listen. Don’t prime the pump for the answers you want. You want the truth. You want and need reality. Your leadership, your ownership, and your business will benefit most from the truth, not some fake reality you all wish was true. 

Changing the culture to foster truth takes time. Be patient.

This can’t be a one-off. You need to make this how you roll all the time. Once you sense people are trusting enough to divulge the truth, praise it. Act on it. But be patient knowing that if this is going to stick, you’ll have to keep pushing. 

Insist on the truth. Show people that the quicker they get to the truth, the better for them, and the entire operation. While speed matters, and I’m fanatical about it when it comes to execution, you have to be patient knowing that if this is brand new inside your business…it’s going to take time for people to continue to embrace this new way.

Challenge your leadership team by not tolerating anything other than brutal honesty. Not brutal in the sense that it’s filled with judgment and finger-pointing. Brutal in the sense that it’s fast and respectfully unfiltered. The word is “thoughtful.” Do not tolerate anything other than thoughtful honesty and discussion about the truth – how things really are.

Disagreement is okay. In fact, it’s good. Leverage it.

Understand that somebody’s truth is somebody else’s fakery. We don’t all see things the same way. We all make judgments. It’s necessary so we can do anything. Discernment, dot-connecting – it’s all part of what we do every day. All of us. 

But sometimes we get it wrong. Convinced we had it right until somebody or something shows us we were wrong…we were convinced we were right. How you overcome that? 

By sharing experiences and insights.

When somebody reveals a truth, make sure everybody expresses why they believe that to be true. Push and make people defend it. Let others push you to defend what you believe to be true. There has to be a standard by which you’re going to measure truth. And a way for you to get to it. This is it. 

Get close to the source. A common problem with leadership is a poor perspective. Their viewpoint is from an angle far removed from the work. Yes, you need that wide-angle view that leadership provides, but you also need to zoom in and get up close to the problem. It’s easy to discount the feedback – the experiences and insights – of the front line workers because leaders tend to look down on them (BIG mistake) and think they know more. The employees doing the work have a viewpoint you must hear! Listen without judgment. Reward candor and honesty. Again, just make sure everybody knows their experiences and insights are valuable but open to honesty challenging. Don’t get defensive, but people have to know excuse-making and griping aren’t the objectives – getting to the truth is what matters. You want to make things better and that can best be done when you know what the problems are. Liken it to a doctor’s visit where you reveal the symptoms, but the doctor has to perform tests to make sure you both know what you’re up against.

If your end of the boat sinks, so does mine.

This is very important. It’s not a zero-sum game. It’s mutually beneficial or mutually detrimental. The company can grow, and the individual inside the organization can grow, too. Expanding the pie, that’s the goal. Impress your company with that goal. Don’t just talk the talk, do it. Daily.

Pronouns matter. Lose “I” and “me” from your vocabulary. Yes, I know you own the joint. So does everybody else. But you don’t have to rub everybody’s nose in it. These people have their lives invested in their work. The company matters to them. They don’t need equity for the company to matter to them. 

Embrace “we” and “our” into your daily vocabulary. It’s a powerful way for you to demonstrate the power of “if your end of the boat sinks, so does mine.” As the captain of the boat, do all you can to make sure everybody understands the power of truth to help you steer the boat in the most favorable direction so everybody benefits. 

Don’t let anybody fake anything. Keep it all real. Truthful. Fake is deadly. Fatal. 

Be well, Do good. Grow great!

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Mastermind groups. Think tanks. Peer groups. Support groups.

It doesn’t matter what you call them…they’re opportunities for us to surround ourselves with like-minded people who are peers. Peers are people who are in the same boat we’re in. In the case of THE PEER ADVANTAGE by Bula Network, they’re all business owners! Folks who share many common issues, challenges, and opportunities. 

Years of coaching CEO’s and top-level leaders has shown me the importance of mental health in effective leadership. People don’t like to talk about it…until something very bad happens. Then, everybody seems to chatter about it. Until interest dies back down. 

Sitting down with business owners, CEO’s and other leaders has proven to me the unquestioned need for every business owner to avail themselves of being surrounded by other business owners yearning for personal, professional and business growth. It’s obvious when the CEO quickly jumps to some personal problem that is preoccupying her mind. Sometimes it’s a crisis like caring for a sick, aging parent. Or a struggling marriage. CEO’s aren’t robots immune from struggling through life’s issues. Instead, the pressures of high expectations are ever present. Decision making can’t be put off or canceled. Instead, the show must go on!

THE PEER ADVANTAGE by Bula Network is intentionally designed to help you go on with the show. Shared experiences, shared expertise and insights – these are the priceless assets of a highly functioning peer advantage group. The power isn’t only inside you, or me. It’s in the collective. The power is in the room. In this case, a virtual room that conveniently meets every other week.

I guarantee it’ll be the most powerful room you’ll ever enter. Powerful in the sense of being valuable to you. Check out the details at ThePeerAdvantage.com. Apply today and let’s talk about this opportunity. Together we’ll figure out if it’s right for both of us.

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

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The benefits of physical fasting are widely researched and documented. The benefits of social media fasting might not as widely researched or documented, but I think they’re valuable, too. 

Which is why I’m doing both. And it’s why I do it every now and again.

I do this a couple of times a year — go on a social media fast. I probably fast physically close to half a dozen times or more a year. You may benefit from figuring out ways you can employ fasting in helping reach new heights of physical, mental and spiritual fitness. 

Be well. Do good. Grow great! I’ll see you when I decide to break this fast. 

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Intentions matter. 

Senator John McCain will lie in state at the Capitol in Washington today. However you may have felt about him, or his politics, you have to tip your hat to the man’s intentions. By almost all accounts, he was a man of principles and integrity. Maybe the biggest proof was when he was captured in Viet Nam as a young Navy pilot and refused to be set free because he wanted to honor the code of first captured, first freed. 

McCain wrote a farewell letter that you should read. It reveals the man’s heart and the intentions of his life. True confession. I’ve not been diagnosed with any dreaded disease, but thoughts of death compelled me to write my own farewell letter about a decade ago. I update it every whip stitch. It’s in a DropBox that my wife and I share. She gets a notification every time I update it. Sometimes my intentions change a bit.

“My fellow Americans, whom I have gratefully served for 60 years, and especially my fellow Arizonans, 

Thank you for the privilege of serving you and for the rewarding life of service in uniform and service in public office has allowed me to lead. I have tried to serve our country honorably. I have made mistakes, but I hope my love for America will be weighed favorably against them.

I’ve often observed that I’m the luckiest person on earth. I feel that way even now as I prepare for the end of my life. I’ve loved my life, all of it. I’ve had experiences, adventures, friendships enough for 10 satisfying lives, and I am so thankful.  Like most people, I have regrets. But I would not trade a day of my life, in good or bad times, for the best day of anybody else’s.

I owe this satisfaction to the love of my family. No man ever had a more loving wife or children he was prouder of than I am of mine. And I owe it to America. To be connected to America’s causes — liberty, equal justice, respect for the dignity of all people — brings happiness more sublime than life’s fleeting pleasures. Our identities and sense of worth are not circumscribed but are enlarged by serving good causes bigger than ourselves.

Fellow Americans, that association has meant more to me than any other. I lived and died a proud American. We are citizens of the world’s greatest Republic, a nation of ideals — not blood and soil. We are blessed and are a blessing to humanity when we uphold and advance those ideals at home and in the world. We have helped liberate more people from tyranny and poverty than ever before in history, and we have acquired great wealth and great power in the process.

We weaken our greatness when we confuse our patriotism with tribal rivalries that have sown resentment and hatred and violence in all the corners of the globe. We weaken it when we hide behind walls rather than tear them down, when we doubt the power of our ideals rather than trust them to be the great force for change they’ve always been. We are 325 million opinionated vociferous individuals. We argue and compete and sometimes even vilify each other in our raucous public debates. But we have always had so much more in common with each other than in disagreement. If only we remember that and give each other the benefit of the presumption that we all love our country, we will get through these challenging times. We will come through them stronger than before. We always do.

Ten years ago, I had the privilege to concede defeat in the election for president. I want to end my farewell to you with heartfelt faith in Americans that I felt so powerfully that evening. I feel it powerfully still. Do not despair of our present difficulties. We believe always in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here. Americans never quit, we never surrender, we never hide from history. We make history. Farewell, fellow Americans. God bless you and God bless America.”

We judge people by their intentions and actions. McCain had honorable intentions. So much so that even his critics are mostly able to judge his actions as honorable. 

I know the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, but so is the road to Heaven. The difference is, the road to Heaven is paved with good intentions that were acted upon. 

Cason is my 3-year-old grandson. He’s bold. Mostly fearless. But he can be easily embarrassed. We attend worship services at church three times a week. Twice on Sundays and once on Wednesday evenings. He sits with my wife and me Sunday afternoons and Wednesday nights. This past Wednesday night, while my son was up preaching (Cason’s dad), Cason was misbehaving. I got onto him and he immediately hung his head in shame as I plopped him onto my lap. I let him be embarrassed for a few minutes before distracting him with the watch on my wrist. He’s only 3, but you can tell by his facial expression and body language…he knows my intentions are for his welfare. 

Little kids know. Our pets know. Everybody knows. Or thinks they do.

Your intentions matter.

Make them honorable. Be well-intended. Pursue the best outcome for the people you serve, the people you love. Pursue the best outcome for the causes you care about most. Seek the welfare of others, even if it costs you something. And it will. But it’s worth the investment.

Your judgment of the intentions of others matters.

What if you think the worst of somebody else…and you’re wrong? What if you think the best of somebody else…and you’re wrong?

It’s like the choice between pessimism and optimism. There’s just no downside to optimism. So choose optimism. Choose to think the best. Give others the benefit of the doubt when you’re judging their intentions. There’s no downside. And if you find a downside, it won’t negate all the upside. 

John McCain’s critics may not have agreed with his conclusions, his specific goals, his approach or a host of other actions. People – reasonable people who are well-intended – can still disagree without being disagreeable. 

Teddy Roosevelt said, “Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care.”

We can all do a much better job of letting the people who surround us know how much we care about them. Even if we do sometimes disagree.

It’s Labor Day Weekend. Monday is a holiday. I’m thinking of starting my “every-so-often” social media fast, but I’m not sure. If you don’t hear from me next week, you’ll know why. And you’ll know my intentions are to return and keep doing my best to help you out, even if it is just a few minutes every day. 

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

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