Transcript
Speaker: Hey everyone, Dan here. Welcome to another episode of Forward Looking Leadership. Today, I'm honored to be joined by Liz Landry. Liz is a speaker, a strategist, and the author of her forthcoming book, From Operator to Owner, The Entrepreneur's Guide to Running a Business that Doesn't Run You.
Speaker: Liz, thanks for joining us on Forward Looking Leadership.
Speaker: Absolutely. I'm excited to be here. It's to have you here. so First, why do you think this problem of entrepreneurs being stuck in their business is as widespread as it is?
Speaker: you know It's interesting when you look at what the world of entrepreneurialism has been over the last 40 years, right? So if you think about like the late 80s, 90s and what entrepreneurs looked like, while we definitely had entrepreneurs then, we were so focused on a management perspective where using that one tool that we know so well can get you to where you want to go, right? You carry a lot of weight, you do things and you get there. But the small business owner Right. They they kind of either just stayed small or people scaled into these massive companies.
Speaker: Today's world, we've got a bigger opportunity on that in between. We've got more resources than ever available. We've got more technology than ever available. People are wanting to be in control of their own businesses more than they want necessarily a career in somebody else's right now. And so really, over the last 20 years, we've seen entrepreneurialism and in small, like single person, small businesses skyrocket versus what they were in the 80s and ninety s I think that's one of the things that has brought that so prevalent. and I think one of the other factors of it is is we've decided we actually want a better quality of life in the last 20 to 30 years. and And I think it's an awareness thing on there. I don't think it's so much a problem of this never really existed. i think that generally we're looking at it now and we're just not necessarily willing to accept that this is the way that it has to be, right? That there's a better way to be an entrepreneur today.
Speaker: Yeah, so that awareness of this and the technical abilities to actually run a solopreneur practice and then grow that much more easily than in the past. That makes a ton of sense. Right, right. A lot of people probably would have never even made it as far as they have back in 1980 or 1990 as they are now. But with the world the way it is today, technology, the way we're connected and what we can do, it gives people a lot more opportunity to actually survive in this world to make something that they might not have been able to get off the ground previously.
Speaker: Yeah. So what have you seen it take to make that shift from solopreneur to leader? You know, it's an interesting thing when we look at what makes us really successful, especially as a solopreneur. You get this idea, right? I'm really good at X, whatever that might be, a lawn service, baking, selling houses, mortgages. And we get this idea and we're like, I'm going to build it because I'm really good at it. I'm going to build it. And I know I've got a great product and people are going to love it And we jump into this and we have to work hard, right? I don't think there's ever an entrepreneur has ever started a business who thought, I'm to go into this and this is going to be so easy, right? Like this is going to be free flowing, no problem. I think everyone expects it to be hard in the beginning. But I think the hard that we envision it as entrepreneurs is the actual labor intensiveness of getting something off the ground, right? The lead generation, the product development, the talking to clients, the things that
Speaker: entrepreneurs tend to naturally be good at and so it's hard but they're working with a tool that they know which is hard work right and so we get into that perspective and so our identity typically most of us has been i'm a really hard worker i'm really smart i'm really good at my thing right we lived in that hard work works kind of a mentality but anybody who scales beyond themselves runs into a new problem And that problem is people.
Speaker: And people will always be the problem, but they will also always be the solution. And when you bring somebody else into your world, it's less about what I can do and what I can accomplish. And it quickly becomes more about what can they do and what can I accomplish through them. And that's a really challenging transition that I don't think was a tool many of us were given until we're faced with it. and We have to say,
Speaker: well, the thing that I've always done isn't working anymore to get this done, so there's got to be another way, right? And the hard work identity that forms in those early days and those early years and in the careers we had prior to being an entrepreneur is is not the identity of an a leader, right? like That just doesn't happen. We don't come in and we say, I wanna lead people and that's why I'm gonna start a business, right? i I speak in rooms all the time. And every time I ask that, maybe one person out of a thousand raises their hand and said, no, I i got in this because I really wanted to lead and develop people. And I'm like, great.
Speaker: you are the 0.01%. The rest of everyone gets into it because they're really good at that thing. And so that identity of shifting into a leader and really owning a business, it just doesn't come naturally. And it it it's really like sandpaper rubbing us, right? it just It doesn't fit usually our natural personality. It doesn't fit the pace we like to move at. And it just becomes this difficult transition where we think,
Speaker: Well, I am the leader, so therefore I'm a leader, right? and And the identity doesn't necessarily catch up the same way. It makes so much sense. And it's such a common transition for people from in the corporate world from like individual contributor into first rung of management and up and up and up in leadership. And this is such a common problem they run into, right? is this you know You're judged on the results of your people now. You're not judged on your individual contribution to it. This really clicked for me when we were talking earlier in this solopreneur to leader framing. It's not really this kind of
Speaker: solopreneur to something else that we've never heard of and we don't understand. it's like This is this is like naturally a transition into being a leader. And you're right. It's just because you're the head of a company, technically, you're not necessarily a leader. right you're you're leader You're a leader only if you're leading other people.
Speaker: right, you might be at the head of it, but that doesn't mean you're actually leading. you know i look at it and when people ask me about this, I'm like, imagine when you were a kid and you were playing video games. you know I was big on Mario when I was a kid. Mario, Zelda, those were those were big and in my heyday. And it's like, okay, great. I beat this level. I accomplished the goal, right? I hit my benchmark.
Speaker: So I level up. And then as you continue to level up, what usually happens in video games? Like they give you new tools at the end of it. It's like, oh, you're going to need this to win the next level or this new place you're going or you unlock this different world. And not only are there notifications of, hey, you got there, but it's here's the new tools that you're going to need to get through here. And that's that's great.
Speaker: That's not the way it happens in a business, right? and you You get somewhere and you're like, well, but where are the tools now? Well, how do I do this? And we kind of just assume that because we've been able to accomplish the revenue or the client load, right? And grow that aspect of the business that the other things naturally show up and we get a notification that it's time to now be this person and it just magically happens. And unfortunately, while I wish it did, it it doesn't. it It's much harder than that. It's much more complex at the same time.
Speaker: Yeah. I hear you on this complex identity shift into becoming a leader. What have you seen work for people to help move them along in that new identity?
Speaker: You know, the first thing is actually awareness as it starts with most things. and Unfortunately, most people don't actually make a change until the pain of what is happening today becomes so significant that the fear of the unknown or the fear of changing and slowing down in order to do that becomes less than the pain of today, right? That's that's when we make change. And entrepreneurs, they like to run. They like to build. They like to move at a certain pace. And making this shift requires us to kind of slow down a little bit.
Speaker: and to acknowledge and to look around and to have different conversations, which are not naturally naturally generated by simply the tool we've always had, which is hard work. And so I think the awareness comes first. you know, people who are listening to this podcast today, people who end up picking up the book,
Speaker: That's actually the first out of the three sections. It says awareness really big on letters as you enter part one into the book. Because once we understand that there's actually different phases that not only the business goes through as it becomes a full fledged self-sustaining business that can stand on its own, that there are phases and versions of ourselves that we go through in that.
Speaker: That's like the magic moment, right? When I explain the framework, it's super simple of the book, it's just four different levels. But when i explain the framework to people, they go, oh my gosh, like I can see where I'm like, this is me. This makes so much sense, right? Because we get to this point, which is in the second phase of the model.
Speaker: And we think that's what it is because we fail to understand the transition to get to the next part. And so the awareness that there's actually more beyond what we typically are all stuck at, I think is really important. And the awareness that it's not just the business that evolves, it's us behind it.
Speaker: Again, just um really useful people to see. i think once you can see the problem, you can understand how to how to move through and how to create the solution here. Yeah, you can start to see yourself in it. When when it gets explained you, you're like, oh yeah, yeah, I see it.
Speaker: yeah Now oh I got it. and Once we have awareness, it's a conscious choice not to change. It's not a conscious choice to to stay the same when you don't have awareness. But once you have awareness, it's like it's a conscious choice at that point. And it will wear on us more and more and more if the pain keeps growing.
Speaker: Yeah. And definitely want people to um check out the book and read the full book for listeners awareness. What are these four stages? So the four stages, and this is any solopreneur to any successful business. And this has nothing to do with like the size of revenue. This has nothing to do with the number of employees that you have. and And we'll go through that. But these are the four stages. And each stage comes with its own identity that we have behind it So the first stage of it is no leverage.
Speaker: When you are truly solopreneur, party of one, right? You're by yourself, kitchen counter with dishes and dreams, building something from a little seed, just trying to get it off of the ground, right? This phase, you are the doer. Like you are the muscle, you are the brain, you are the marketer, you are the financier, you are everything. You are the door. And that hard work serves us very well. So our identity there is very attached because we get very much directly rewarded for being the doer at this point in time and using the tool that we've always had, which is hard work.
Speaker: It pays off dividends at this point. The growth feels exponential at this point because you're starting it from literally nothing. The second phase is what I call task leverage. At task leverage, we are the manager.
Speaker: Because we manage process and systems, we lead people. So at Task Leverage, this is the point where you decide to expand beyond yourself and you do actually bring your first set of hands into the business.
Speaker: Now, there certain industries that can go a long time and make decent money before getting to this point, right? Mortgages, real estate, insurance, right? like All of those things, contractors, you you can make a good amount of money as a true solopreneur before you actually have to hire somebody.
Speaker: Other businesses like a pizza joint or maybe a landscaping company, you don't have that benefit. Right. so you have to do this from basically day one, right? From inception to months later, you're hiring your first person.
Speaker: But this isn't really leverage. This is just relief. And the reason I call this the managerial phase and you manage processes and systems is because while there are hands doing the activity of something that you need, they are executing something.
Speaker: You're still the brain. You're still the one telling them exactly how they execute. You're the one imparting the judgment. You're the one making decisions. You're the one pulling the strings behind the scenes to say, do this now, do this. And this needs to go here. And this needs to go here. Right. You are managing a lot of pieces and This is unfortunately where people get stuck a lot because task leverage is relief. It does take some of that weight of being completely alone off your shoulders. And what you get back is kind of incremental gains, but you don't get exponential gains.
Speaker: Our third level we get to is what I call talent leverage. And this is when people are not only just owning the execution of tasks, they're actually owning the judgment and the thought processes behind it.
Speaker: And most importantly, they're owning the result, right? So they take full ownership of this is what needs to be accomplished. Here's how I'm gonna do it. This is when it's gonna get done. This is what gonna look like. Here's the tools that I need to go find to be able to facilitate this, right? They fully own the task or the initiative.
Speaker: This is where leverage becomes exponential growth in terms of advancement of the business and weight off of your shoulders because you're no longer the brain behind it. You're the vision and the strategy, but you're no longer the brain behind the activity happening.
Speaker: This is the leader phase. This is when we actually turn into leaders because leaders don't just manage processes and systems. That's a manager. Leaders lead people.
Speaker: We teach people how to think. And that's what people have to be able to do to truly own outcomes. They have to be able to think. They have to understand the judgments and the thought processes. Now you can get here with your very first hire to talent leverage and only one hire. You don't need multiple people.
Speaker: But we see a lot of people scale at level two task leverage and bring on five, six, seven people. and before they know it, they're just the brain answering questions and not actually moving the business forward.
Speaker: So there's a bridge and there's there's things that you need to do specifically to get between two and three. And most of it is work on us and our identity and our leadership skills. And level four is leadership leverage.
Speaker: Leadership leverage is when you truly have secondary leaders that you have developed inside of your organization who are conveying the vision and the strategy down through the ranks. right So instead of just me holding the vision and the strategy and the advancement of the company, it's now coming down through the ranks to my people clear with 100% clarity, right? Not getting muddied, not getting butchered. It's not a game of telephone. It's coming down clear, being held accountable. And then those people are getting developed.
Speaker: by the layer of leadership below me, right? So those are the four levels that every business goes through. You can reach the third level with one higher. You don't need more bodies. You can also get stuck at the second level with 50 employees.
Speaker: It's a conscious decision to develop, to move into the person that it takes to be the leader. Because when you reach leadership leverage at level four, this is when you're truly the owner because the work you do looks different.
Speaker: Now you may own the company the whole time, but the work you do looks different. You are specifically focused on strategy, vision, and people development.
Speaker: That becomes your job as the owner. This is hugely valuable for people listening and for my own journey too. Seeing this with a lot of them clients and colleagues, companies, a lot of people get stuck at the level two and they just have a whole team of people that they're still the bottleneck of it and they can't seem to get beyond being that that final decision maker, that needing to give direction on every little thing kind of a thing.
Speaker: I'm just moving into phase three now for my own. And it's been really, really you know interesting and personally um rewarding and personally trying, I think, to do this. When you finally break into talent leverage and people start owning things, this is a This is an exciting phase in the business, right? You feel the growth be exponential at this point. It tangibly feels different than it does at task leverage, right? They are wildly different. And when you finally feel it, it's like, there's the freedom.
Speaker: There's the growth. It's exactly that. Yeah, it's exactly that. No, I think for for me, it was um when I have someone on my team actually making a sale independent of me. i think that's a really interesting part of this. and then And then carrying out the work independent of me. And it's like, oh, wow, okay, I see this. This makes total sense. Directing it.
Speaker: Absolutely. Part of it, but just personally, part of it for me is this um understanding when you're ready to make that investment. And that can be a really tricky part. I'll just speak for myself on this, but it's like, you know do I have the the vision and the strategy in the right place to know that I want to take this risk of making this investment in somebody else coming on the team and that that took me a while to get to and I finally hit that. I'm wondering, does that show up for other people that you work with and how do you know you're kind of ready for each of these next phases? yeah you know It's interesting. you know i talk to a lot of solopreneurs who, um many of which really want to make a first hire, but they're scared. right that like if Am I ready? Do I have the money? like What does this look like?
Speaker: you you know They're making money because they're good at a technical, tactile thing. right They're good at a trade. And so they're making money and it's like, the do I want to do this? And I also talked to a lot of solopreneurs who have done it and it didn't work out.
Speaker: And so they went backwards and now they're burned. right You touch the candle, you're going to keep your hand back. right And so it's interesting when I look at them and and why I wrote the book the way that I did in particular. you know Truthfully, the the typical person I work with has a large business.
Speaker: The typical person I work with is doing millions of dollars in revenue. They've got a leadership team infrastructure already, and we bring these concepts throughout their ranks to make sure that it's not just them, but where're we're bringing this all through the ranks.
Speaker: But the more people I talk to and the more I go and I speak and I work with people, I've realized that that solopreneur and the reason I wrote it targeting that person too to help is because so many of them aren't taking the step because it's like going into the stairwell while the stairwell is dark.
Speaker: You know there's stairs and you know there's things that have to happen. You know you have to climb them, but you can't see them. And when you can't see them, you don't know how to take the first step. And once you take the first step, you're now committed to keep going up the stairs.
Speaker: And so, so many of them don't because they don't know what that first step is and they're getting stuck exactly where you're talking about. And the people who have already been listening to the book, because we're we're giving the early audio out with all the presales, it's interesting the amount of them that are truly that solopreneur who want to do it and are looking for the confidence of understanding and flicking the light switch on on those stairs to say, i see it now.
Speaker: Now I can feel confident to go forward. and So you know when we look at it like that, that person, how do I know when I'm ready? well I think it's kind of like anything. You're never really like 100% ready. like i don't think anyone's ever ready to buy their first house. I don't think anyone's really ready to have their kids. I don't think anyone's really ready to have that puppy, right? Because we all look at the shiny things of it. We don't think about the puppy or the baby at two in the morning that needs to go outside or have the diaper changed. We don't think about the repairs on the house that need to be done and the maintenance every year. We look at the shiny part. And so it's it's the, you get ready enough
Speaker: And I think the the point there with a solopreneur who's thinking about it is, does your business sustain paying your bills? Not, am I making a million dollars? Does your business pay your life?
Speaker: Not, am I living my best life, but does it pay the bills? Is there excess money, meaning profit, after it pays the bills? Am I putting reserves away to have profit?
Speaker: Great. And then it comes down to can I put four to six months of that first higher salary in the bank? And that gives me six months to get them into productivity, six months that I don't have to worry about paying them, right? Because I've got it in the bank already and I'm continuing to earn revenue. And do I have enough understanding? Have I flicked the light on to the stairwell to say,
Speaker: I might not know everything about hiring and onboarding, but I've got myself enough tools in the toolbox that together we can figure it out. right And part of it's just taking that leap.
Speaker: I think the most important part is Can your business afford it? And affording it happens a lot sooner than most people think. I think for most small businesses and solopreneurs, that really does happen between two and $250,000. Like there's profit, there's reserves, and and there's your life being paid for, right? Like you've earned your way into that.
Speaker: And that's also a hard ceiling to push past if you're completely staying solo, unless you're in some unique industry that's just really high dollar like revenue, right? And so being ready, I don't know if it ever actually fully happens. It's kind of one of those, do you trust the stairwell and did you turn the lights on as bright as you could get and and using the tools that you get at that point.
Speaker: It's a great metaphor and i think a big relief for a lot of people of this isn't something that you have to wait so so so long to do into the course of the business. so I think lot of people wait too long to truly make that first hire or they you know got burned by the candle and they pulled back. And that just ingrains that identity of the only way this will work is if I work hard and that I'm just not a leader. Well, of course you're not. You've never done it yet.
Speaker: Right. It's just like, you know when you have your first kid, you're doing everything for the first time. Of course you don't know what you're doing. It's the first time you've ever done it. Right. Same thing with starting a business. It's the first time you've ever done it.
Speaker: There's no shame in saying, I need resources. I need podcasts. I need books. I need classes. I need a coach. right I need mentors. I need a peer group. Because if you want to go fast, you can go alone, but you're going to have a ceiling.
Speaker: If you want to go far, you've got to go together. What have you seen lead to that getting burned when they touch the candle kind of a thing with people? i it It hurts me to tell you what I'm about to tell you, because it's almost always our own fault.
Speaker: almost always. and Things that we shouldn't do that we probably do when we make our first hire and it doesn't work out. We hire our friend, we hire our sibling, we hire our cousin.
Speaker: We don't interview. we have no idea what their goals are. We don't really even know the job we're looking to hire for. We've not written a job description. We've not identified tasks. We just know I'm drowning and I need help.
Speaker: And so it's come into my world. I'll pay you whatever you ask because I'm in pain and I'm just going to start dumping things on you and I just need you to do that. Right. And so when we do that,
Speaker: Nine times out of 10, we're hiring the wrong person. Nine times out of 10, we don't have the right job that somebody should even be doing. And they're just kind of doing random things that fall on the floor. And nine times out of 10, we are paying them And when we pay them incorrectly, by the way, it's almost always overpaying, like by a lot, not underpaying. It's almost always overpaying with bad structures that that don't scale. and ah Those are us problems. The second big thing, it's not just in the hiring and the onboarding that I see go wrong of why people get burned by the candle is...
Speaker: Every single hire you ever make, even the most talented hires, even if you hired a CEO tomorrow for your business, is going to start in your business at task leverage. And the reason why is they simply don't know the context of your specific business yet. So even a really talented person who has run other businesses before or has been a director of operations in another business or has been a for 10 years in a thriving company.
Speaker: They don't know your business and they've got to learn your business and get that context. And so literally every single hire will start off at task leverage. Your first hire, your 50th hire.
Speaker: The challenge is that if we don't know how to bridge the gap and how to convey our context, it all lives in our head, and convey our judgment and what success looks like and what it looks like when we win and what done well looks like on the task, if we don't know how to convey that to them, all of those little things I just mentioned are the bridge that get you from task leverage to talent leverage because they're imparting the context and the judgment in the person's brain to teach them how to think.
Speaker: And if we don't know how to do that, which is not taught in school, it's not taught in college, right? It's not even taught in in business school, right? Like this is leadership and leadership's not wildly taught in this kind of capacity.
Speaker: And unless we know how to do that, we get stuck. And what happens is our person who started out really strong those first 90 days because they were taking all the execution of tasks off and we're like, man, I love it.
Speaker: Betty Sue is just giving me so much time back. But the challenge is Betty Sue's got a ceiling on her and she's never gonna get better because we're still having to tell Betty Sue everything to do.
Speaker: And what happens to Betty Sue is that if Betty Sue actually is talented and seeks to have autonomy of her role and to have development and future opportunity,
Speaker: Betty Sue becomes disengaged in the business because they're not getting that from us. Right. This is what happens when you hear somebody say, yeah, I don't know what happened. Betty Sue started off so great. First 90 days were awesome. But here we are a a year later and i I just I feel like the job's not getting done the same. And I'm i'm still getting all these questions and I still have to tell Betty z Sue everything that she needs to do.
Speaker: That's not a Betty Sue problem. That's us because we didn't know how to bridge that gap, right? And so they stepped back thinking that it's, I just don't know how to get good candidates or I don't know how even lead them, but they've not sought the tools to build that bridge.
Speaker: Yeah, and I hear that blaming the team member instead of taking responsibility for yourself as a leader. Because you can't really even necessarily name what's off, but you know it's not right. You know it's not working, but you're not even really sure why, right?
Speaker: Why isn't it working? They're executing some tasks, they're doing things, but it's like the return on investment isn't growing. It actually tends to shrink a little bit and it becomes frustrating because we expected growth and it doesn't happen. And so we struggle to name what's even wrong. All we know is that it's wrong.
Speaker: What are some of these leadership skill sets as opposed to what people might think of that they've learned in MBA program or they've learned in their hard work of leading up to this point? But like what are these distinctly leader skill sets?
Speaker: ah Some skills that are specific to leaders in general are not actually typically normal for entrepreneurs. They kind of go on the opposite side of the way that we are all wired internally. I've learned some interesting facts over the last couple of years, some research that I did before writing books, some research and just learning for the way I learned with entrepreneurs. Approximately 50% of entrepreneurs or more have ADHD as adults.
Speaker: nearly a third, i think it's something like 32% of entrepreneurs or dyslexia right So we're dealing with very different neuropathways in people who enter this wild world of entrepreneurialism.
Speaker: And the things that make those people awesome entrepreneurs are things like they're driven. They don't sit down and sit still for very long. right They need to move things forward. They thrive in environments that are hectic and chaotic and fast moving. They have a huge tolerance for ambiguity.
Speaker: All these amazing things that make them great starters of businesses. The leadership skills look different. Leadership skills are more restrained.
Speaker: They're quieter. They're more thinking time and their' more strategic planning. their longer term vision. They require us to slow down. They require us to have a depth of understanding of people.
Speaker: They require us to have restraint so that we don't jump in and solve something. And most importantly, this is one of the the top things when I look at somebody who makes that transition from task leverage to talent leverage is they learn to ask good questions of their team members, right?
Speaker: you will find that when you look at the best leaders, the best leaders who lead their teams, they don't say anything. They ask everything, right? Everything becomes a question to get more understanding of the person's thought processes behind it or to guide somebody towards a answer.
Speaker: And none of those skills are naturally what's in our blood as somebody who got a business off the floor, right? Those things that helped us do that are not the same tools. They're not the same natural skills. And so all of these all of these new skills, we're having to learn for the first time.
Speaker: i don't know about you, but when someone says, Liz, you need to slow down. When I'm running through a project or going towards a goal, I'm like, yeah, sure, we can get that done in two months. No problem. They're like, whoa, whoa, whoa. This is a 10-month project. I'm like, no no, no, no, no. It's fine. I'll get it done in two months, right?
Speaker: Because that's my my entrepreneur brain. But then my owner and leader brain kicks in. It's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's pull this back and let's look at all the things that could go wrong when we push this into two months and the catastrophes we could have people wise by just bulldozing through and putting this onto our team. That's like, oh, that's not a good idea.
Speaker: Right. But my natural being, who I started as, really wants to do that. Yeah, I'm not surprised at all to hear about the ADHD thing. and it's um I've talked with other people but on the podcast about this too. And it's I don't know what the percentage of my coaching roster is that either explicitly or or thinks they may have it, but it's it's something like 15, 20% at least, I would say. And these are all kind of like hard-charging executives or entrepreneurs or senior leaders and this kind of a thing. And it's like very surprising to people who don't work in this space, but I'm ah not surprised at all to hear you bring that up and yeah say that. um I feel like I kind of have the opposite problem in mind where it's um
Speaker: I think I'm like naturally more on the kind of conscientious, long term strategic kind of level. And like that initial entrepreneurial starting was where my biggest problems were and trying to like really get this thing off the ground and going and like make the decision to fully go into it. And it's almost feeling like a relief now that I'm getting up to these yeah new levels of this where it's kind of like the polar opposite of a lot of entrepreneurs in some ways.
Speaker: yeah Now it's a superpower, right? like there is that There's that rare entrepreneur. when i When I work with entrepreneurs right and do this and talk with them and go to their businesses, there's probably about 5% that naturally are more leadership based. They understand people better. They're more systems driven. right They're operationally minded in that kind of an aspect.
Speaker: that's a rare bird. And if you can get past those early days where it's just the grind of getting it off the the floor, right, you naturally excel in those higher phases, right? You naturally tend to lean into leadership leverage more, you naturally tend to develop and work through others because that's a natural skill that you have.
Speaker: The challenge is very few of those people make it from zero and actually get the business to that point because they don't have that other natural skill. So it's literally just sheer determination and will and motivation that gets those people through that typically and learning those new skills. But it's really only about 5% of the entrepreneur population.
Speaker: The other 95% struggle as they grow instead of struggling through those early phases. It's so interesting. And, you know, I think I see a lot of people who don't achieve that liftoff when they people will say like, oh, I want to become an executive coach like you. And they, they're like, first act is to hire a bunch of people all around them and pay tens of thousands of dollars for marketing and for the sales and for everything. It's like, there's no way you're going to get this thing started.
Speaker: This is not the field of dreams. That is not how that happened. If you build it, they will not just show up. You have got to go and earn this and build it. and Yeah. it's exactly right. yeah Unless you're sitting on ah an inheritance you haven't told us about, this is going to burn out very, very, very quickly. so yeah What are some other misconceptions that you run into with people who are trying to scale businesses in this way that you see over and over again?
Speaker: and think another big one that we look at is that we're we're isolated and we're alone. And that I'm the only one having these problems. you know that's That's been some of the most surprising feedback as people have been reading and listening to the book is that they look at it and they're like, I feel like you're literally talking to me, right? Like I get emails and text messages every week that say, I feel like you've had cameras in my office. Like, how did you know?
Speaker: And they're not showing that outside and they're not going out to a peer group. And they're looking at the people on the stage at the conferences and they're saying like, these people have it all together.
Speaker: It's like, no, no, I know that person. I know the back end of their business. It's not as together as you think. They're on this journey too. They might be at a different phase than you, but they're on this journey too. And I think that that's one of the big misconceptions is that Just because we knew how to build the business with revenue and do the tactical or technical thing that was that we decided was going to be our product or service.
Speaker: That doesn't mean that we naturally level up like those video games and get that skill set. It doesn't just happen. And I think that's a big misconception because people look at and they think, well, it's just me that has this problem.
Speaker: and And it's not. This is a universal kind of thing here. and And it's not just them. and And that misconception can be really damaging because we don't seek out the help that we need through coaches, mentors, peers, group, peer groups, education, seminars, because we think that we're just uniquely broken and and we're not.
Speaker: It's just part of the process. Yeah, I think that's, again, such a relief for a lot of people to hear who are listening. And there's this, um you're you're exactly right. It's just like being behind the scenes on so many of these businesses and even like ostensibly very successful, established businesses, like everything is kind of a mess behind the scenes a lot of the time. And it's like everyone's trying to project this image of of pure confidence. And it's it's not really the case a lot of the time. It reminds me of whenever I have ah clients or people ask me about that and they're like, well, do other people have these problems? I'm like, yes, they do.
Speaker: Here's how I can tell you other people have these problems. Have you ever taken a Christmas photo or a family photo or done photos on vacation or something like that? They're like, yeah. I'm like, was your hair done? They're like, yeah. I'm like, was your makeup done? Yeah. I'm like, was the family all in their best khakis and white shirts and everything was ironed and, and everything was on their best behavior. And they're like, yeah, the pictures are great. I'm like, and did you argue and fight and have to iron those shirts? And you didn't let anybody touch the outfits beforehand. And then you took the tags off and you handed them to your eight year old. And you're like, if you drop one thing on these before we get these pictures taken and everyone kind of laughs, I'm like, what you see on the outside.
Speaker: is not what's real life behind the closed doors necessarily. And it's not that people are hiding necessarily the bad parts. It's that there's that's not what you see when you're on the outside looking in. Right. Like, that's just not it.
Speaker: You don't see those things. And so it's not necessarily that they're like, oh, my gosh, nobody can see this. It's this horrible little evil thing in my business. It's just that's not what other people see from the outside. They look at the best version of something.
Speaker: and And that's what we see. We don't see all the things that go into it. We don't see the trials, the tribulations, the the lost hires, the people that get their spouse gets a job in California and your number one hire moves away and you're like, oh my gosh, I have to replace them.
Speaker: And then you made two bad hires after that and didn't work out. Nobody sees that. But those things are all very real in all businesses. Yeah, and another great ah metaphor for people there. And something I see a lot, I'm not sure if you run into the same thing, is um sometimes the loudest people about how you should run a business are running businesses that are failing. And sometimes the people who are running really successful businesses don't have a ton of time to be running around and doling out tons of business advice to other people. And i I just see this over and over again where people would be like, you know, oh, this person said I should do this. and it's like, well, I know that they they don't have a strong business or even um lot of people using like ChatGPT or Claude or something now. And it's giving this like really off advice. And it's like, okay, this is probably pulled from, you know, some trove of Reddit comments or something where it's like, this is not actually good business advice. That's terrible business advice. Don't do that. and You know, since I focus obviously on organizational leadership and those kinds of things, I i get people all the time that when I'm i'm in sessions, I'm teaching a workshop or a group. Somebody's like, well, if I hire somebody, shouldn't they just be able to do their whole job on their own at 90 days? Like, I don't have time to train them. I'm like...
Speaker: Oh, who told you that? And they're like, well, I've been told that if you know they're the right person for the job, they'll just figure it out. I was like, they will, but not in your business. I was like, because nobody wants to come into somewhere where they're not supported and everything's dumped on them and all of those things. I'm like, Will they be autonomous on certain small parts of their job at 90 days? You betcha.
Speaker: Should they be succeeding? Absolutely. Do we need to be there guiding them and setting expectations and training and imparting the judgment and making sure they understand our business at the same time and letting them know where they have autonomy?
Speaker: Absolutely. Right. Hiring the right person and, and, you know Getting people that are you know owning their jobs doesn't mean abdication of the leadership.
Speaker: And a lot of folks kind of have that idea of, well, if I hire the right person, they'll just get it. And people didn't join our business to make it harder for them to achieve their goals.
Speaker: They joined our business so they would achieve their goals quicker and easier. And if they're not doing that because they're not supported and they're not getting trained, they're going leave.
Speaker: It's so right. And it's it's taking the time to really do this make this happen and not kind of rushing things too. I see that a lot with people where it's like, you know I want this like quick hit result with this person. And it's you know the things they're asking them to do are build these trusted relationships and make complex sales and you know do some really intricate service. And it's just like, this is not going to happen overnight. going take months and months and months. with with With, by the way, our entire training manual and operations manual is in our head, right? no Nobody, it's not printed usually in these small businesses as they get this phase, it's all in our head, which means we've got to get it out of our head to them, to train them. It's like, people can't read our minds as much as I wish they could, they cannot.
Speaker: Yeah. And the the frustration with that of why don't they know this? And you've never taken the time to explain it. Exactly. Liz, what books or other resources of any kind, doesn't necessarily have to be books, do you find yourself recommending the most often to people?
Speaker: You know, I think it's really important for people to get information in the way that suits them best. And what I've learned about entrepreneurs with their ADHD and all the you know the crazy ways their brains think is You can get somebody for 15 or 20 minutes, pretty easy.
Speaker: And you can get somebody for six to eight hours. It's really challenging to get somebody for, let's say, 90 minutes, right? um And so one of the things that I've learned, and this is one of the ways I work with my clients too after realizing this is, you know, when I want to start conveying information to somebody, whether that's a team member I'm training or a client or even that I'm absorbing information, I start with the small breadcrumbs, leadership reels, right?
Speaker: Podcasts, right? Things that are going to give me a taste of something in somebody's theories and concepts or like are a taste on the subject. And as I begin to find my footing on that subject or dig into the concept of it and relate to it, then it's how do I consume more, right? What does this look like?
Speaker: Because entrepreneurs, it's really hard for them to sit down for 60 minutes to an hour and keep focused on something. They can get you on a short 10 or 15 minutes and they can get you on a full day where you're captive at a workshop, but an hour, it's really challenging. And so I think that's one of the things to look at is know what you know about yourself, right?
Speaker: How do you absorb information and what ways do you like to do it? For me, again, I like to start with small things and when I feel like it's resonating, i go deeper into it.
Speaker: and And this is the same way that I work with my team members on things. When we have a team member who's struggling with certain parts on stuff, I'm like, let's just start combing YouTube shorts and see what the concepts are out there around solving this problem that we now have, right? and It's before you know it, a week later, the team members coming back to me and they're like, hey, hey, I found this one person that does a lot of training on this. And then it turns out they do a masterclass on it. And then it turns out they wrote a book. And then it turns out they do a six hour workshop.
Speaker: Where should I start? Right. And so they're leaning into it now and saying, OK, I'm bringing the training back and doing that. And I kind of work the same way, right? It's really hard for me to sit down for 90 minutes and be totally bought into something without having some footed context that it relates to me yet.
Speaker: I will tell you probably one of the most influential business books that I have ever read that connected with me as an entrepreneur is Keith Cunningham's The Road Less Stupid. And it's not necessarily geared for small business entrepreneurs, but what if you've ever read it or if you've never read it, Keith goes through and it's it's something like 45 or 50 chapters.
Speaker: And but the chapters are very short, right? There are 10 minutes of audio maybe on each one. And it's essentially his learning lessons from being an entrepreneur in building billion dollar businesses and losing billion dollar businesses. And some of the things that he, he went through in those like hard lesson he learned when he let somebody get away with something for too long and then had to have the uncomfortable conversation with them. or the way he didn't set expectations or the way he violated his own schedule and wasn't giving himself time to think, right? And some of those learning lessons. and I would hands down say that that is a book worth diving into for anybody out there listening to it. E-Myth is fantastic. It helps a lot with your identity, buy back your time. Yes, there's a lot of really good resources out there. It really depends on
Speaker: what kind of message you connect with too, right? Because it's got to be relevant for you. All of those are in the wheelhouse, but they're all different messages. Liz, this has been great. How can listeners learn more about you, follow along with what you're up to, pre-order a copy of the book, all of that kind of stuff? far Perfect. I'm super easy to find on social media. Like any good entrepreneur, I am everywhere on social media. Easiest one to find me on is Instagram, the Liz Landry, L-I-Z-L-A-N-D-R-Y. And all my other links are on there. You can find me Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, same kind of same kind of jazz. For those interested in picking up copy the book or just learning even a little bit more of it, you can go to fromoperator2ownerbook.com and you can pre-order a copy. They start shipping at the end of October. And with all pre-orders, we are going to be giving out the early audiobook. So really, can start listening today.
Speaker: Great. Well, I would very much encourage everyone listening to go ahead and do that. We'll put these links in the show notes again. And Liz, thank you so much for joining us. Absolutely. I'm excited to be here. Hopefully your listeners have gotten some good information on this.
Speaker: Such a pleasure. Thanks again.
