Leslie Hassler – Author, Speaker, Business Growth Strategist and founder of Your Biz Rules

0:00 The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are solely those of the hosts and their guests, and not those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We make no recommendations or endorsements radio show programs, services, or products mentioned on air or on our web. No liability explicitor implies shall be extended to W four CY Radio or its employees are affiliates. Any questions or comments should be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing W FOURCY Radio. Churchill said, those who failed to learn from history are condemned to repeat it. Kevin helen n believes that certainly applies to business. Welcome to Winning Business Radio here at W four CY Radio. That's W four cy dot com and now your host, Kevin Helena.

0:52 Thanks everybody for joining in today. I'm Kevin Hallanan and welcome back to Winning Business TV and Radio on W four c DO. We're streaming live on talkfo TV dot com in addition to Facebook, and that's at Winning Business Radio, and of course we're able in podcast form after the live show wherever you find your podcast content. The mission of Winning Business Radio and TV. As regular listeners and viewers know is to offer insights and advice, to help people avoid the mistakes of others, to learn best practices. Those are the how tos, the what tos, the what not tos, and to be challenged and hopefully to be inspired by the successes of others. Who are those others consultants, coaches, advisors, authors, founders and owners, entrepreneurs, people with expertise. But you know, virtually every successful person I've ever talked to has said some form of failure in their lives and careers. So you hear me say it every week. So we all have to get our knees skinned once in a while.

1:51 I'm driven to keep those scrapes from needing major surgery. Let's endeavor to learn from history so we don't repeat it. I've spent the better part of my career equipping businesses to grow from solopreneurs to small and medium sized companies all the way up to the Fortune fifty. I've seen a lot of those companies win, and to varying degrees, I've seen some fail. I've had the opportunity to rub elbows with some of the highest performing people around and with some who probably should have found other professions. In my own businesses, I've had lots of success, but some failures too. I like to think I've learned a lot from those experiences. So, yeah, you're going to hear from me, but mostly you're going to hear from our guests. And today is no exception. To Today's guest is Leslie Hasler. She's author, speaker, business growth strategist, and founder of Your Biz Rules. Here's Your Bio. Leslie Hasser is the powerhouse behind Your Biz Rules, a consultancy firm transforming small businesses into financial or excuse me, freedom generating machines. Leveraging seventeen years of entrepreneurial experience and a strong background in marketing, finance, and leadership, she guides businesses towards predictable profits and sustainable results.

2:58 Your Biz Rules offers compart hints of business audits, the Profitable Growth Incubator program, private consulting, and fractional CFO services. The firm is celebrated for igniting transformative, profitable growth, reshaping businesses to fulfill the owner's vision, and enabling clients to break through financial barriers. Leslie's holistic approach prioritizes profitability and a balanced quality of life for business owners. She's the author of first This, Then That, and the Upcoming Scaling Rich recognized on stages across the US, including the National Association of Women's Business Owners and Women's Business and Excuse me, the Women's Business Enterprise National Council. Leslie's also a past president of I Don't know how he pronounced that Nabo Nabo DFW Dallas Fort Worth and an alumna of the Golden sax ten K Small Business Program. She's a mother of two an average traveler. She brings a well rounded perspective to her work. Her mission is to ignite the potential within business owners, empowering them to conquer challenge ranges, unlocked on precedent and growth, and build an abundance and balance in their lives. Leslie, Welcome to Winning Business Radio.

4:08 How Doy Kevin, thanks for having me. I'm so glad you're here. Thank you. So I always like to start with a little bit of background. Tell us about your kids, your family. Oh, my kids. You know, when I first started my business, they were toddlers. They're now in college. So I have incoming sophomore and incoming junior, two boys doing really well in school. So excited for them. We do love to travel. So this year we actually got to go to Tahiti a nice twenty fifth anniversary. Well congratulations for that, Oh thank you. Yeah. And I think generally I see life as an adventure, be well enjoyed.

4:49 How's that nice? I love it. So is Tahiti one of the favorites or are their other favorites? Tahiti was Actually it was good, But Tahiti was kind of. A payback to explain that because that's where I thought we were going on our. Honeymoon, oh man to go, and it was not where we wound up. We wound up in Germany at Octoberfest, which is a very unusual honeymoon trip but actually very apropos as well, if you know the story behind Octoberfest. So you turned right, you turned left, You should have turned right. Yeah, I had no say in the planet originally on the university. Wait, just just to put this out there, we are going to Tahaiti, right, Yes, we're going nice.

5:34 Nice. By the way, I have relatives in Frisco and Plano. I know you're closer to that area. Oh yeah, you're super close close. I'll be in DFW actually in Fort Worth and visiting that family at the end of this month. Oh, be prepared for hot I know, I. Know we'll be at the conference that I'm speaking at a conference down there, but we'll be inside most of the time. Okay, let's talk about your background a bit. Where did you grow up? I grew up grew up in Houston since so been a Texas in my entire life. But Texas is so big. You can move around to Texas. Like most people moved to states, we just moved cities here in Texas. So born and bred went to college. Here, have done everything and M. Yes, I'm a pat in Texas. A and M class in nineteen I.

6:19 Had a girl, had a girl. Why did you choose A and M and to major in journalism? Oh golly, journalism is my first degree. And I will say that I probably did journalism because it was what I was. Told I was good at. I hadn't quite found what I wanted to be good at. And by the time I figured it out, I paid my own way through college. I went in and I said, I think I went a business degree, and they're like, well, haha, that's a BS. You have a ball. Send your college career by another three to four years, and I was like, no, I can't afford that. So I graduated with a degree in journalism, which put me into the marketing and advertising sphere.

7:04 But you know what's so interesting is how many of our years afterwards this is I use that degree every day of my life. It is so much communication in what we do, and I think it's probably the basis for being able to write books and blogs and do all the content development that we do as a company. So, yeah, while I didn't know what I was going to do with it, then I will have to say it definitely has. Come in handy. That's cool. Probably helps you ask questions and be curious and learn about your clients and speaking as well, I would imagine. Yeah, and research. You know now that when so much more information is so readily available, it's still interesting to see whether or not people can be critical of the information that they're receiving and actually diving in beyond the story that's being told.

7:57 And I do think that's probably from journalism, where you're just you never stop at face value, because generally that's not the whole story. You're constantly seeking to find the two sides of truth and be able to make some I guess analysis for what you find in the middle. Did you work in journalism or in that feel a related field prior to seven. I actually went into I went traditional marketing advertising agency, then Interactive the agency up until about two thousand, you know, two thousand and four I had Did you get that right?

8:38 I actually I e quit that in twenty two thousand and four and went and got a degree in interior design. Very cool, Well, that's the next question. You started Designs by Leslie and O seven, So tell us about the company, why you started, and the work that you did or do. I don't know if you still do it, but no, we. Don't do that anymore. So Designs by Leslie was started on May seventh of two thousand and seven, because on May third of two thousand. And seven, I found out I was going to have a job. I worked for small businesses at the time most design firms are, and while we did good work, and I did good work, there wasn't enough cash flow in the business to really have the people that hired me sustain me.

9:25 And I think this happened between maybe three times in a row, and I was just like I had it up to here. I wanted to do what I wanted to do, but I wanted to control my own destiny. So I started the business with a whole wap in four days worth of planning. Now, granted I had above average skills and some I mean, I could move together a business plan and a marketing plan and all my past agency life. But honestly, I don't know. You know, four days is not a whole lot of time to get a whole lot of proof either. But we were surprised. We did amazingly well our first year. Second year, I was having to hire, and then eight or nine happened, you know, and build around kind of came to a grinding halt.

10:10 I remember in that area seeing just development stopped. Yeah, you know, we I living in Houston at the time. And what you wound up finding was Houston itself as a market wasn't really impacted. But what it was is the impact was so grave across the nation that Houston. Held its breath. There was a lot of conscientious holding back of spending and design is a luxury item. It's something that is spent and invested in when people feel like they have more than enough. So that's where. There was this this conscience multiple years of people pulling back and not investing in their homes or in their surroundings at that time, So our business shrunk by fifty percent, and going through that that was a lot of not fun.

11:04 I like to say that the two to. Three years that I struggled with that loss and trying to regain it and rebuild the business, where I call them the dark years. They were my hard day's night, if you will. I probably was depressed as the day was long because I took so much of what was happening so personal. And you talked about skin knees. I'm just like that was being almost like being dragged by a horse through the middle of town. It just every burn that could happen, I felt like it happened. And then. Yeah, sorry, those are some of the best lessons, right, those are some of my best lessons. So what did you learn through that journey?

11:48 One of the big things I learned in that journey was you can have a meh business and be okay in good times, but you cannot have a med business and be okay in bad times. And it really taught me what Here's what I saw. My personal journey was that our business could ride the wave because there was the market there, there was spinding there. It was the thing. I could take advantage of a trend if you up. But that same trend when it started to falter, I didn't know at that time that I needed to be building in foundational pieces of my business to. Go along with our success.

12:29 So when the trend starts faltering, then we had the capsize, right, we had a significant I had to figure. Out what to do next. And we've seen this multiple times over and over and over again, most recently twenty twenty. People that businesses weren't They rode the trend, but instead of taking advantage of that to shore up the business foundations and start to diversify, they relied on the trend. Lasting about trends, they eventually run out of steam. So then twenty thirteen, your arm with all this new patful knowledge, but you founded your biz rules. Tell us about your biz rules, why you started the company, and then the work that you do.

13:13 Sure, so your biz Rules technically started by name in twenty fourteen, at the beginning of the year, I. You know, I grew back the design business. We grew one hundred and fifty percent in six months, we did some stuff I thought that was going to meet me happy, and it didn't. So I had about. Two years of going through conversations with God and going, Okay, God, if it's not. This, then what not this? Than what? And I really came away with during those conversations is I might have walked into this business as an interior designer, but I was walking out of this business as an entrepreneur.

13:54 My role had. Shifted, and it what I realized is I love business. I didn't love design. My values just weren't fully aligned in. There, and I didn't have a business that still supported me because I'm still on a journey. So coming around through these couple of years of conversations led me to do Your BIS Rules. The difference between the two businesses is market although I used the profits of the first business to build and fund this second business, your BIS Rules. But I'd like to say the design business was a bit of my prison and your Biz Rules is my playground.

14:38 And that is signifies the difference of my quality of life as an owner and as an entrepreneur and the transformation of my learning. If you will say, if you will with me of understanding how important it is that my business is in alignment with what it is that I want from. I'm not going to give it away yet, but I hear, I'm hearing so many of these elements in the books and the work that you do. So hold that thought, everybody. We're going to be back in one minute, about one minute, we'll take our first break here. We'll be back with Leslie in just a few minutes, just one minute. Excuse me.

15:20 You're listening to Winning Business Radio with Kevin helenet on W four CY Radio. That's W four cy dot com. Don't go away. More helpful information is coming right up right here on Winning Business Radio. Have you ever dreamt of being on the radio, Well, now is your chance be a radio show guest on the number one ranked internet radio station and promote you and your business for free. Yes, you heard it, free business advertising right here on W four cy dot com. Call five six to one five zero six four zero three to one now to get booked on one of our shows. That's five six one five zero six four zero three one geg. You're free advertising now.

16:10 And now back to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helene presenting exciting topics and expert guests with one goal in mind to help you succeed in business. Here once again is Kevin Helenet. We're back with Leslie Hastler. She is author, speaker, business growth strategist, and founder of Your Biz Rules. And that's what we were just talking about. And this may be slightly unfair, but who are your ideal or typical clients? Because I know that they're not all ideal, but you know, what does the ideal client look like for you? Our ideal clients have a belief in their potential, so they're likely thinking about growth, scalability, or retirement, so there's a desire for change. I will say a majority of our clients have strong family values, strong values and quality of life as well, are a little battered by the hustle and grind and looking for something a little bit better demographically, the ticks and the tax, if you will.

17:13 The facts of the business is typically we're ninety percent service base, ten percent manufacturing failed that type of thing. But yeah, we really are in that micro and small business realm, so mid six figures on up to maybe five six million in an annual revenue, so a wide breadth in there, but I say it always comes down to the desire for something better in the business, the desire. For more freedom, the desire maybe for a better paycheck. And you know, even maybe with an eye towards selling or exiting the business in three, five or ten years.

17:55 Geography does not matter. No, we have clients across the nation and to be international. Very cool, very cool whereabouts, like generally. It's not general. That's the thing. We have a big cluster on the East coast, we have a cluster in the mid the middle Central, and then I'll say our smallest cluster might be on the West coast. But we really do have. A good spread across the country, typically a little more urban cities as you will, but yeah, all over the place. And then our last thirty four clients were in seventeen different industries. Wow, wow, that's great.

18:37 Yeah. What does again, maybe a little unfair becau I'm gonna use the word typical, but generally, what does a typical engagement look like? So majority of our clients are coming in for the fractional c suite set of services. So that's our probably full service kind of offering where everybody always wants to know what are we going to work on? And here is how we answer that question. We actually take time to get to know the business and the business performance, the history of the business before we even start to say here's what needs change. And part of that is if we're looking for we go through a business audit with our clients in the first four weeks where we're diving deep into the business numbers of financials, all everything, and it's almost if you can open up a book, you know, please open up the book.

19:28 We say you cannot drown us in information, because what we do is we're going through it to get a great understanding, a quick understanding. More than you could give us tell us. It would take you three years to tell us as much as we can mark in that four to six weeks. But we're also looking for. Where are the red flags, where are the low hanging fruit opportunities? What does growth look like for this business? We have just come. Behind too many other playbooks, if you will, where the playbook never changes, it's always the same playbook for growth. And we have found that business A and business being may not need the same things. It's this time that we take to really get to know the company that enables us to give it a very customized personalized and if you will, Now, what do we do after that?

20:20 We always work on the money of the business first, because that's the engine, right, that's the fuel, that's what's going to pay for the growth coming down the pipe. But from there it's just a matter of what does that business need. A lot of people need work in the team area, job descriptions, team development, leadership, development. Leadership, right communication. Sometimes we just need to actually define what's the marketing message. Maybe they're looking to expand and get better in sales, but they don't know how to communicate themselves in a way that's enticing. So we will stay in the strategy area and really develop out create the system, if you will, so that they then can leverage something a little bit more processes technology. I have one client right now, just to give you an example. One client right now has been with us for four years, and we started out doing more of a strategic growth plan. We've moved into fractional CFO services, and now we're doing some bad work with the rest of the team to get them to start developing networks and pipewort originate. We're also doing bringing in more structure to the company for project management and things of that nature. So our company is really designed full of SME experts.

21:47 Do we have every subject? No matter? No, that's why you need great partners like Sandler and you know, to be able to take a lot of these heavy liftings. But we can provide this nucleus, if you will, of making sure that everything in the business is attended to. Because I've never seen one problem only be about one segment, right right, It's multiple, so we can handle a lot under that umbrella. All right, quick one, how do clients find you? Sure? Obviously your biz Rules. In fact, we do have a special page just for our listeners today at your biz rules dot com forward slash w b R. So being able to go there, you're all be able to see a few things. You'll get more information about the books about us and a few free resources. But we are pretty much everywhere, so LinkedIn happens to be our most popular.

22:41 Soa but speaking speaking is a large element of how we I don't get exposed to people that are looking for answers. All right, now, don't blush these next quotes, all right, I want you to touch on these testimonials, gain clarity, no, no nonsense. I was able to focus and let go of the distractions. I only wish I had found Leslie sooner. Can you give us a flush that out just for a minute. Sure, we hear that a lot about we wish we had worked with you sooner, and a lot of what we find is is that our clients are great at business. They're great doing the work they serve their clients, but they're oftentimes in this bit of an echo chamber, if you will. Even when you have team, you don't always feel not safe, but like it's appropriate to have some of these questioning conversations with your team when you're supposed to be the one that's exuding all of this confidence.

23:41 A lot of times we'll get in there and it's just a matter of being that second set of eyes, having experience in the arena that you're trying to fight your battle in, and just going, hey, yeah, I know, that looks like the thing we should be chasing that. Actually it's not. It's being caused by this over here, and this thing over here is being really really quiet, which is why you don't even think you need to be fixing that. But if we fix this, then that will. Take care of the next thing. So it's that ability to sort through, and I think it comes down to how we on board clients get really deep dive and then we're like, I see what you're feeling, let's fix that. And it's just like, oh yeah, it's super easy. We need to do the next four things, and you know, we can have this chop chop chop.

24:31 And there a lot of times were like that client said, they're like I have one client. She goes, I've been working on this for three years. We take care of it in nine weeks. It's like, it's just a difference frame, right, we're not emotionally attached. We can see the facts and the figures and sometimes see more of the picture than our owners can see. And then we're just gonna get to work. We're going to keep it easy because what's easy gets done. What gets done gets results. So we're just going to break it down to the bare minimum that it needs to be in order to be effective. That's great, All right, here's one more. I've gained much more confidence as a business owner. You touched on that slightly a minute ago.

25:12 Yeah, So I. Think confidence is something that until you have been maybe three, four or five businesses, I don't know how long it really takes. But until you've been around the ballpark quite a few times and seeing a lot of different scenarios, it's hard to gain confidence because you're constantly second guess in yourself. So just with a fractional CFO client last week, we were talking through things. We're like, yeah, have this information over here. It's it's nice to have, but it means nothing. It doesn't translate to anything. And based on everything that we've seen, we want we want revenue to be here. So that then net income is there. Da da da da da. Here's what's going to happen. Guess what.

25:56 It's not that hard. It's another sixteen percent growth over what you've already. Accompli this year. They're like, oh, wait a minute, that's what I. Thought, Like, yeah, you were right, you know, And I think sometimes it just takes somebody else being there to say you're right, you have this, you can do this, you did that, you can do this. You know. It's it's having that additional support that if you're the only leadership in your company, sometimes it's hard to. Do for yourself. Nobody to bounce things off of. At times. Yeah, one more quote, Leslie has a wonderful way of taking complex tasks and breaking them down into manageable and effective steps. Yeah.

26:38 Yeah, well I know you your proponent of disc I. This really relates back to strength Finders. For me, it was something I did in my first business when I was trying to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up, and there were two elements, with three or four elements. Actually my strength Finders that this is it's strategy, it's future, as is activating and it's achieving. There is just the ability for us and the majority of our team has been trained in this way to take the most complex problem, break it apart as simply as we can, and then just tackle things one at a time. That is, it's another principle of what is it the principle of tiny gains where you're trying to get one percent right right and then you get significant on the outset. So that is really what that is talking about, is being able to break down even the most complex things into chunks, to be able to break those down just so we're doing one simple thing today and it's like, well, what's the thing I can do today?

27:41 Can you make five phone calls today? Yeah? I can make five phone calls today, phenomenal, Make five phone calls today. Hey, by the way, can you make. A MOE again? It wasn't easy yesterday? It was easy? Can you make another five phone calls today? Right? And it's just. Keeping things feeling like they have flow and ease actually reduces ninety percent of the obstacle in a situation. And then once it's not a big deal anymore, you just keep doing it. And that's why people see such significant results working with us. All right, one more question before the next break, because this is probably not a quick one. How does you mentioned selling sometimes exiting? How does a business owner know if her or his business is sellable? What are some of the factors that people should look at?

28:30 The bigger one is going to be your net profitability. If you're joining the business of every cash, every red scent to avoid taxes, then you're going to have a harder story to craft to be able to show net net profitability. There are things like adbacks, yes, I understand that. However, I found the more manipulation you need to be able to do in your finances, the more questions you provoke from your buyer. So we like really clean, clear, strong stories, and that's number one. Number two though, is can you be out of your business for three months, a month, three weeks, you know, if you can't take a vacation because the things fall apart, it's a really good indicator that you don't have a business that's sellable.

29:18 You may have a job that's profitable or produces revenue. But it is really kind of a key areas that concentration on on. The business owner. I will then say the third thing you need to think about is concentration of clients. It's really interesting. We had one of our companies go through evaluation and while the individual offices if you were that they serviced was maybe, I don't know, one hundred, they had one national firm that represented forty or fifty percent of those. You know, every little office is an individual buying decision that one major umbrella owner risk valued the company because it was too much. If that one company goes out of business and all those offices are going out of business.

30:11 So those would be the three things I will say. We'll tell you if you if your business is. Not ready for thinking about selling. But oftentimes people I'm finding are over confident in their valuation. Of their business. I hate to put a statistic on that, but it's a lot, a high number, right, right. It's a lot. I hate to be the bearer of bad news. I mean, we can fix it, don't get. Me wrong in most cases, but a lot of times people just because it's their baby, they overvalue what someone else is willing to pay. Yeah, all right, let's take a break here. We'll be back in one more minute with Leslie Hassler.

30:55 You're listening to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helenet on double You for CY Radio. That's W four CY dot com. Don't go away. More helpful information is coming right up right here on Winning Business Radio. The yp dot com website is your local search engine. If you're looking for a good restaurant, it can help you find the right one nearby with ratings and reviews. Or if your car breaks down, you can use the YP app to find the closest repair shop. Or maybe you're just looking for something to do on a Friday night. While it has great local coupons for all sorts of things in your area, no matter what, when or where. If you're looking for something, YP local search can help you find it, so go to YP dot com. Or download the app to search local, find local, and save local.

31:45 And now back to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helene, presenting exciting topics and expert guests with one goal in mind to help you succeed in business. Here once again is Kevin Helene. All right, we're back with Leslie Hasler, founder of Your Biz Rules. Leslie tell us about the Profitable Growth Incubator Program. Yeah, so, the Profitable Growth Incubator Program really is our small cohort, if you will, businesses who are working on the foundations of their company. What's crazy about that is that you can be five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten years in business and still not have the right foundations in place. So it is a way to have a little community, if you will, that are going through similar experiences.

32:41 And one of the things we've noticed is kind of amazing is this is why. First off, why we like it small. We like it small because we want to be able to go deep, and so if we have too many people, we can't go deep. The next part of that is is that we want the people that are in a co coort, a single corpor time to have relationship with each other, because you want to have that sounding board that that other person and say, I was thinking this, Do I sound crazy? No, you don't sound crazy. In fact, I was thinking that of phenomenal. You want to be able to have that talking space so you can grow faster. But here's what's always really interesting to me.

33:23 When we have businesses that aren't they don't think they're anything alike, right, I don't know. You could be manufacturing and then you could be accounting, and you would think those two businesses wouldn't have anything to learn from each other. Inevitably, they always do. Because what we have found is and why we like to work with so many different industries, is what is maybe routine in one industry is innovative in another. And when you can pluck those kinds of ideas over from one industry to the next, sure you've got to do a little modification, but you actually get a larger result, a greater yield from implementing these types of ideas. Well, those don't come from a room full of people that look and do exactly what you do. So yeah, we love our profitable growth Think cubator. We run it two or three times a year, and like I said, we keep it intentionally small so that we can work with people really deeply.

34:23 Very good. Sounds good, all right, this sounds really cool, especially because it's in Caribbean and Mexico. If we're hosting a Scaling Rich retreat for entrepreneurs, tell us about that program. Yeah. So, one of the things that we have found is the reason that businesses get out of alignment with an owner is that the owner's vision gets lost along the way. It's like, we try to be realistic a little too much in the business, and especially if you've been around and gotten some of those great denees that you and I have been talking about, it's easy to get a little jaded. It's easy to get little skeptic. It's easy to stop dreaming. And we like to entice.

35:07 Our owners to start dreaming again because that's the fun. For me and my team is we make those dreams reality. So what the Scaling Rich Retreat is really doing is pulling people out of the environment that they're in, but it's your home office or you know, the four walls of your office in a building, and using experience to help you dream again and then helping you. Turn that dream into strategy. Because that's the next big gap that people have it's great to have a dream I'm going to travel all the way around the world. It's another thing to say, what does that mean? When would that happen, what would need to be in place for that to happen. And so that's really that taking again from strategy down to implementation a fund way to be able to break out of old habits and start to make the dream a closer reality. And that's the fun part, honestly, at the end of the day, is when we change lives because we're creating reality in a new reality for people, and when they experience it, they want to do it for others. They want to do it for their team, their family, their community. And that's how we do really good work.

36:23 I love that, all right. You've written two books, starting with first this then that, laying the foundation for entrepreneurial success. Why did you decide to write that book? That book originally was inspired because I was having conversations with people who we're having a hard time buying a cup of coffee, and I wanted a way to serve at a level that could get people past whatever stumbling block they're on. And I was this way in the first business, especially in eight and a I'm. And where you just felt like, could somebody answer a question, like just one question, I just need a question. I answered, And so first this then that, in a lot of ways, is a service a mission if you will help it to help businesses survive and thrive in their companies. We've had there's one chapter on pricing, and I've had companies come up to me that I've never met before and they're like that one chapter changed.

37:31 Our life, and I'm like, phenomenal. Because I believe in small businesses. I believe in the community. I believe in our impact. I believe that if our small business community, that's the mom and the pops and the accountants and the photographer photographers, and you know, if all those businesses we were going to lose, our world would be worse. Would you want for it? So I am always going to what I can do to ensure that this community thrives, even if it's not popular, even if it's you know, the out season, the out. Year, or even if you're on trend or off trend. I don't care.

38:11 But I really want to see long term growth and impact for what I call the everyday heroes that never get recognized that's why we do what we do in a. Lot of ways. You touch on four areas at least primarily in the book Strategic Business Growth. Can you touch on that, Yeah, Strategic. Business Growth Again we've kind of started to talk about it with the retreat is really you have to start with the vision and then it trickles down right, and there's elements. Of vision vision values that drive. Strategy, that drive our behaviors that then generates whatever you're doing today. That is, the ability to filter down in that strategic planning is going to be the difference between whether you get.

38:56 Growth or not. One of the single, single defining factors of success, it's your ability to take action. But in order to take action, oftentimes people just don't know what to do. Like people are great at doing, but. The reason they're not doing is they don't know what to do and like or they don't believe that what doing that will get them a change or get a result. So you've got to know what to do and that's really where the basis of the retreats starts going to come in is to build that strategic foundation. But then it's about getting results and doing repeated actions time and game and being able to do things like scaling. Now, growth and scalability though are there different for me? But you need both in a business. They're like dance partners.

39:46 Sometimes growth leads, sometimes sales, scalability leads. All right, what about visionary leadership? So because people tend to come in business because they're really good at what they do, having to learn how to be a good leader, and leadership today really does look different. It demands more versatility, more skills if you will, from the owner, more embracing of I'll say empowerment if you will, amongst your team. It is I think the leadership, the leadership that we cut our teeth on, is not necessarily the leadership that leads to growth and scalability in the marketplace today.

40:34 So we really want to. Help our owners step out of being the one that does all the work into the place to where you're ensuring that the work is done and is done well, but you're able to let go, let go enough that your team can support you. Of it takes trust. It takes trust. Most people think it when I say that it's trusting your team, it's not really what it is. It's trusting yourself. That's good, you know, all right, you started a touch on this pricing for profit and you talk about two x three x four x take home pay. I love the micro look there. Yeah, so pricing for profit is really about changing the way you think about.

41:20 Your pricing in the business. Most people base their pricing on an industry standard without regard about whether or not it's profitable. We have an expectation. And I'll even share this because I was like, Okay, everybody always asks what is good profit? And I was like, well, what is the industry but a good standard of good profit ten percent? And I'm like, really, that's so not enough. Most owners are paid out of the profits. So if we're going to two three, four times the income that our owners are being able to take care take home, we've got to do that in profit. And so this is a methodology that actually has you critically look at your pricing and ask yourself is it profitable without necessarily getting you into a time for money. Like I said, most of our people if when your professional services, with the exception of like our lawyers perhaps are well not even CPAs do this too much, but I know a lawyer.

42:20 It's especially where very time billing is in the game. Right, But for a lot of other people, I really don't want you billing for your time. I want you billing for the result value, right, because when you are. Doing that, number one, you're working with better clients, but you do better work. And when you do better work, you can charge for the value that you're providing. It's a happy upward spiral that we want to do. So really, processing for profitability encompasses a lot of that is the math, but then it's also about the positioning. How do you position and protect it. How do you reimagine in your services or your products to be able to maximize profitability while at the same time providing a maximum value for your clients. We're not into profiteering a little different, right, but just maximizing the value.

43:17 On both ends. And then small Business Success Formula which includes time management, financial decision making, and you just touched on market positioning. Yeah, so time management. I have some really different, I think ideals when it comes to time management that go counter intuitive to almost everything out there. But I will give one of my favorite resources to give, although I don't think it's a great book to read, is Getting Things Done by David Allen. It is probably for me. One of the pivotal things that get you off the to do list, because really the to do list is about achieving and crossing things off that we actually are addicted to that check mark where that cross through it feels good through seconds. Right, So there's some different attitudes that really have to shift around time management if you are truly going to value your time and what.

44:17 You do with it. But now everything else that we've talked about is about layering to make that time management, which comes down to freedom for an owner so much more possible. If you've got a business in alignment, if you know what you're doing, and you're only working on the things that make a difference in your business, then all that other stuff can just fall away. We can cut away the clutter. Right. If you're having visionary leadership, then you've got a team that's working as hard for you as you are for them. So then you're getting exponential impact if you will think. And then if you've got pricing for profitability, then you're making. More money less with a better quality of life. Is this interesting? And suddenly though those dreams that maybe you've discounted become possible.

45:04 That's good and that's available on Amazon. It is available on Amazon. Yes, sir, all. Right, well, our time left. Let's talk about the book. The upcoming book, Scaling Rich. Nine Proven Strategies for Sustainable Business Growth. When is that coming out? You think so? It should be out later twenty twenty five, the latest early twenty twenty six. This is like the What's Next book, if you will, versus that I wouldn't call them true sequels, but it's typically the next problem that you're going to have. Scaling Rich is uh is addressing. And what I love about this book is it is not even telling the story in the same way that we told first this and that first, and that's great. It's a little more instructional that we have a really fun Tony's Tiny tuckos that we talk about through that book. But Scaling Rich is told from the perspective of Josh. I think Josh is that perfect everyday business owner and the struggles that they're going through in their business, trying to scale, trying to get the team on board. In some ways, it's all the advanced yoga moves that you need thinking about that aren't the math of the business. This is the finesse, the subtleties the psychology, the leadership of the business that goes on behind the scenes, and how you can get your business back on track when it feels like it's going south further than everything, And I think that's inspired by my own story, you know, of getting success back,

46:36 getting the growth, having the team, having all these things, and not being satisfied in the business. Scaling rich is really about that journey, and we see that through the eyes of our main character, Josh. And you mentioned moving from being cash strapped to thriving. Love those words equipping owners to generate. There's the word again, freedom and fulfillment. And then this term I love a lot. I've not heard this before, but I love the take on it. Fixing system leaks talk. About yeah, golly gravy. There's so much in that. So if we take the system leaks, so systems are about productivity and efficiency. That's a scaling concept. But a lot of times our systems do one of two things.

47:18 They either let everything in. And its brother fall through their cracks, or they grind everything to a halt. Neither of them work. One sucks resources at the beginning, the other one just allows them to walk out the front door. Throughout the project cycle. Let me give you an idea of what this can look like. And this is actually from the first business. What we realize and when you're working construction, what you'll see is the amount of the longer you are on a job, the less profitable. That job becomes. That have so many things that are outside of your control, shipping delays, supply chain, the client, all these things. So, how then do you create a system that allows for compression of a timeline. And what we saw there is that we could take let's just say a kitchen room model that could take twelve weeks to get done and compress it into six. And by doing that, we turned something that most people don't think can be systematized, especially people that have creative businesses tend to rebeligatest systems. This is a totally creative business, but you compress the timeline on it to protect the profitability. But in doing so, what we did in the business is we could quadrupled the business capacity, which means we didn't have to hire anymore.

48:43 We could stack in projects want to start one week right after the next. And because the system worked, no matter if it was an anybaity project or a really really big project to have an accordion factor to it. That led to scale ability. But the prior system where it's a little lackadaisical and you're waiting for other people to do things, that is that's that's time slippage, and time slippage my word, it is a major profit leak in a business. So you have you thinking about how systems can compress to protect your profitability and in turn increase your capacity to be able to do more.

49:29 Excellent. All right, who in the listening and viewing audiences should reach out to you? And why? I will say if you have been trying to grow or scale in a better way for any amount of time, three months, three years, maybe reach out and see if we've got another take on what's possible for your business. If you're looking to. Sell your business in three to five years, reach out. We'll definitely give you a business that will pay you three times as much in the way of you'll be able to take more salary, you'll be able to take profits, and then you'll get the sale of your business at. The end of the day. But if you've just been where you are for too long, then you probably need to do things different enough to get a different enough result and we could be the perfect partner for you.

50:21 Well that's great, and so the best way for people to reach out, at least for today for those that watch or listen later, is your Biz Rules dot com forward slash WBR love that too, by the way, Yes, all right, well, thank you so much for being here. We really appreciate it. Oh, Kevin, thank you for having me as a. Business and thanks everybody for watching and listening. This is a show about business and business challenges. If you've got concerns about the sales effectiveness of your company, that's slice right there. Whether your sales team is you or small, or it's large, feel free to reach out to me on Facebook or LinkedIn. That's at Winning Business Radio where you can drop me a note to one of my always say one of my many email addresses, Kevin at Winning Business Radio dot com. Our company is Winning Incorporated.

51:05 We're part of Sandler Training. We develop sales teams into high achievers and sales leaders into true coaches and mentors. We're not right for everybody, but as you heard Leslie say, maybe we should have a talk. Thank you to producer and engineer one for another job. Well done. Be sure to join us again next Monday, August eleventh. We'll do it again. Until then, this is Kevin Helena. You've been listening to Winning Business Radio with your host, Kevin Helene. If you missed any part of this episode, the podcast is available on Talk for Podcasting and iHeartRadio. For more information and questions, go to Winning Business Radio dot com or check us out on social media. Tune in again next week and every Monday at four pm Eastern Time to listen live to Winning Business Radio on W four CY Radio w fourcy dot com. Until then, let's succeed where others have failed and win in business with Kevin Eleen and Winning Business Radio