Entrepreneur Success: Mastering Business Growth With Don Schmincke Of SAGA Leadership

Hop on a journey with our host and the world-renowned Don Schmincke, Founder of the SAGA Leadership Institute. We're gonna chat about Don's wild ride from being a gas station attendant to rocking it at MIT. This episode focuses on the untold stories of business and growth, showing that the best business strategies come from rolling with the punches and learning from oops moments.

Want to crack the code of business success? Dive into the secret sauce that makes entrepreneurs tick. Don, spills the beans on a growth plan that'll totally shake up how you lead, work with people within your company culture, and get things done. Whether you're battling business growth or trying to get your mojo back, the tips here will give you a fresh take on making your company everything you always wanted it to be.

Get ready to shake things up with a real talk about change and the art of flipping things around. We're checking out the stories of successful leaders like Richard Branson and Kara Golden, and finding out how storytelling shapes a company's journey. From pushing through tough times to making smart moves, this episode is like a guide for anyone hustling in the business world. Join us for a chat that's not just smart but also super inspiring, made for all of the entrepreneurs out there.

Don Schmincke: SAGA Leadership Institute, Founder & CEO
Website - https://www.sagaleadership.com/
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/donschmincke/
Books - https://www.sagaleadership.com/Books
Blog - https://www.sagaleadership.com/blog/
Email - don@sagaleadership.com

Mentions:
Kara Goldin: Hint Water, Founder & CEO
Website - https://karagoldin.com/
Previous podcast with Kara Goldin - 
(On Apple) https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-to-build-a-business-while-overcoming-doubts/id1675411363?i=1000625390469
(On Spotify) https://open.spotify.com/episode/4o2EiSWX89O8IJSeLRzbNY

Richard Branson: Virgin, Founder & CEO
Website - https://www.virgin.com/branson-family/richard-branson-blog

#Entrepreneurship #Business Growth #Business Success #GrowthPlan #Leadership #SAGALeadership #Biz #BizChallenges #BusinessSuccess #Founder #Founders #Entrepreneur #Success #BusinessStrategy #BusinessGrowthTips #StrategicPlanning #SuccessSecrets #EntrepreneurialInsights #Inspiring #EntrepreneurJourney #MillionDollarBusiness #Scale #CEO #SmallBusinessPivots #SmallBusinessSuccess #Success #Podcast #SmallBusiness #SuccessStories #SmallBusinessOwner #EntrepreneurMindset #BusinessOwnershipSimplified #BOSS #LikeABOSS #bossUP #MichaelDMorrison #BusinessAdvice #BusinessCoach #PodcastRecommendation #PodcastForBusinessOwners #RichardBranson #KaraGoldin

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Most entrepreneurs are failures. In other words, it was in the failures, in the losses, and so whenever we see these books saying we got to do this right, you do that right, you do that right, I'm like, no, it's not that's. You know, that's not what I'm finding. When I'm finding, as most entrepreneurs are, a history of losses and it was because of how they were being in those moments of loss that made them great entrepreneurs, that transformed how they grew.

Speaker 2: 0:30

Welcome to Small Business Pivots. I'm your host, michael Morrison, a small business coach and founder of Boss. Boss helps business owners create a business that can run without them. Go to businessownershipsimplifiedcom to learn more and make sure to hang around to the end of this episode for my recap and coaches corner, where I share applicable action steps that every small business owner can do to create a business that runs without them. Our guest today is Don Schmica. Don is the author of the best-selling book, the Code of Executive and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. He is an award-winning speaker, researcher, founder of the Saga Leadership Institute and delivered over 1700 speeches. And now, after working with over 7,000 CEOs, they have validated the protocols for success. Let's get to Don now and learn fresh leadership capabilities for faster strategic growth and execution. All right, welcome to another Small Business Pivots episode. Today we have a very special guest. How are you today?

Speaker 1: 1:39

Good, thank you.

Speaker 2: 1:40

Thank you. What part of this beautiful world are you coming to us from?

Speaker 1: 1:44

Well, I'm back in town now, so just north of TC and Baltimore small town.

Speaker 2: 1:49

Okay, If I were to visit there, I always like to ask what is one thing I would need to do or one of our listeners need to do that hasn't been there, oh geez.

Speaker 1: 2:00

Well, we're probably within an hour and a half of most of the battlefields of the United States.

Speaker 2: 2:06

Oh yeah.

Speaker 1: 2:06

Between the British and the Civil War. Wow, if you're into those kind of histories, there's a lot around here, yeah. Plus, washington DC is right down the street.

Speaker 2: 2:18

Fantastic, fantastic. So tell us a little bit about yourself real quick before we get going, because you've got a ton of good nuggets that you can share with our listeners today.

Speaker 1: 2:31

Oh, I don't know where to start and I was. I was like a high school dropout and then I, you know, ended up going to a community college and they saw me uh, something in me, I guess. And the next thing I know I'm getting catapulted into MIT, and that's where I started getting involved with a lot of um, unusual scientific and engineering work, mainly around like AI in the early stages, which looks nothing like it does. Yeah, I can't imagine. Earth and Planetary Physics was really my major and I worked on uh, nuclear guidance systems and then also automated the Harvard and MIT biomedical lab. And that's when I got interested in humans and that study took me to Hopkins where I ended up um, doing some work there and understanding how humans group, and I didn't know anything about business but I ended up getting attached to the um, the Johns Hopkins uh, the executive MBA program. There. That's when I got uh.

Speaker 1: 3:28

I observed a lot of frustration in uh, in young executives that were starting businesses or or working in certain areas of their companies, and they were frustrated with how to implement these management theories. I mean, there were a lot of books out, but so they asked me if I could do a biological research study, and so I I sure why not? And uh, that's when everything exploded. And the next thing I know I'm on CNN, I'm in the Wall Street Journal and things just took off. So what I do now is basically train about 700, uh entrepreneurs and CEOs a year and uh in a lot of the research that we discovered. So I've learned a lot just by hanging around business owners and entrepreneurs and applying science and uh ancient, ancient discoveries into uh current work. So that's now what we do, and we grow companies that way. So I'm I'm enjoying it, I'm having fun. I'm still learning a lot, still making mistakes, still figuring it out but learned to earn and never stops, right.

Speaker 2: 4:29

Uh, I want to jump back just a little bit. You, you said, mentioned high school, and I know for a lot of entrepreneurs one of our bigger challenges is ourselves. So, like mindset and I know for myself, I was not studious and I had a hard time struggling growing up. I was an introvert and so I really had to work hard at that. But a lot of people kind of get stuck in their own way. Did you find a, a source that you kind of catapulted out of that, or were there other circumstances that caused you to do the you said? High school dropout Is that right?

Speaker 1: 5:05

Well, yeah, I mean, I forgot to show up for my senior year until the police told me I had to repeat the senior year and I was like I ain't, I ain't going to go through this again. So, so what do I got to do? You have a 90 days to do, the entire year, which and the teachers are great Everybody came to my rescue and I I ended up doing a lot of reading and testing and got out, and so, you know, I didn't have to repeat the senior year. But then I'm, I was, I was in rock bands and I was trying to be cool and I ended up. I ended up.

Speaker 1: 5:37

I noticed that the guys coming in when I was pumping gas with a great the fancy cars had good education. So I thought, well, I'm going to get an education. So that's what started me and it's like you know, it was really just a series of things. And that's when I, uh, I got a community college and then ended up just getting fast and I didn't care whether you should or not, because they were, they got to get the tuition.

Speaker 1: 5:55

So I thought this is I, but he's going to. No police are going to track me down on this one. I just use a lot of money. I started getting involved with engineering and science and, um, yeah, and a couple people were like retired or had come out of the Cambridge area and recommended I apply to MIT, which I didn't know what that was. I thought it was like a trade score or something. I was sure, yeah, so, uh, I I did, went to a battery of testing and, um, I don't know whatever they saw on me, but that's how I got in.

Speaker 1: 6:24

And then things took off from there in terms of the research and everything else. So now you know, now I ended up doing a lot of for my research. I ended up doing a lot of expeditions, so I've been around in various extreme environments around the world to study humans and how they work, and a lot of my books and articles um go into what we discovered, how we apply it to help entrepreneurs. And, uh, in fact, in fact, this, uh, my latest book just came out a couple of weeks ago, called Winners and Losers just for entrepreneurs, and, um, I and I didn't want to do the book. I was kind of like approached by several people and they said no, don, you got you should. You know you're training. You trained 30,000 CEOs. I mean, you probably learned a few things. Yeah, I would hope.

Speaker 1: 7:12

And I said one as a million copies of entrepreneurs Books for entrepreneurs out there, why? Why do you know the book? They said well, there's not a million Successful entrepreneurs, that's problem. Yeah, they said so maybe you do your research, find out why it's failing so much and how to fix that. And so that's what happened. It was really kind of cool and I got a lot of support. I mean, she's tons of CEOs participated and yeah, so winners and losers released. And then I was released a surprise to be came number one on the Auditor management category, now on Amazon for probably a few seconds. That was it. So it's, it's been fun, it's it's been an area that I wasn't expecting to get into, but not getting a lot of interest. So I think maybe I'll hang around, hang around.

Speaker 2: 7:59

Well, I know you've already shared a couple of nuggets that most entrepreneurs, we all, need to hear, and that is never give up. You know the trajectory of your life was a rock band, and then you cut your hair. And look at you now and then you know the other thing is your story. So I have a lot of entrepreneurs that will come to us and say, why would I write a book? There's plenty of books out there and I'm like, yeah, but your story is not out there, and and so you're here, you're kind of reaffirming that. So Tell us a little bit about your company and then let's hear some good stuff that you have to share to help Entrepreneurs kind of get over the hump, because most of us are stuck in there in our business, and so we're trying to look for ways to catapult over and to the other side, like you did, and so I'll let you have the floor.

Speaker 1: 8:47

Oh, let's see my company. It's kind of a Diverse situation. I mean, obviously I do a lot of speaking and publishing and a lot of research, but we also implement it, everything we teach. So I do spend a lot of time with clients in the field and and growing your companies. We're looking at doing is maybe doing more Workshop or personal development work. The Pacific Institute, actually, and I are looking at joining forces a bit because they their founder had died some years ago, lootice and he's the guy who was really an entrepreneur. I mean he, 50 years ago he started this thing. His research paralleled mine, pretty, pretty nicely so, but he had an earlier start than I did. But he, he's the guy that invented the term not mindset and find your why, and that, like half a century ago, they've trained.

Speaker 1: 9:37

I don't know seven million people over their time. So I'm looking at integrating work, work effective of a strategy session tomorrow, bringing together our strategic positioning of growth of companies with the remarkable Personal development and professional development workers. So I'm looking at that as like a next adventure because we're always evolving. So I wish I had to tell you my company was this stable, the service business? But it's not. It's very unstable. I'm always changing and adding things to it.

Speaker 2: 10:11

Well, that's good for entrepreneurs to hear, because I know a lot of us. We want to check the boxes and we think, hey, everything's going well and then it's not because you're not evolving. You know, kind of like, what you are and I want to pause for a second to ask you With, because you've asked or worked with so many entrepreneurs Would you say, mindset, personal development or business development is what a lot of business owners need. What is one more than the other, or they equal.

Speaker 1: 10:39

I think, yeah, it all depends. For some it was almost an unconscious, accidental Event that had them go to a whole new level and I'm really grateful that I have some. In my work I've been able to run into some great, just brilliant people and very successful people and you know, and for some reason they want to hang out with me. So friends and I learned a lot from from them. Like, like, si Wakeman wrote some incredible New York Times bestselling books and I've got I've got to know her very well and and we've exchanged a lot of ideas, we're kind of on the same advisory boards and so what happens is that I mean advisory board, there's a thing called a national speakers Association and there's a subgroup with some of the top speakers and authors and we hang out together on these conferences and she's in that and that group. That's how we get to know each other. But when I talked to her about how she did it, it was, it was just unconscious. I mean, she had brilliant work, she had discovered in her hospital career, had a following of people that were Tracking what her insights were, and then the next thing I know the she's a bestselling author on the New York Times. But she'll say, or she says I know I didn't do anything that they said I should have done and all of a sudden, you know, here we are, so she's a beautiful person and so it's just an example of people that just unconsciously become extremely competent, I think, just by following their, their gut or what they find are intuitively obvious to them.

Speaker 1: 12:16

On the other hand, there are others that maybe had it. There were in a personal journey, a personal crisis or something that Wasn't working out, and so, out of some either urgency or some passion focused on doing something remarkable, and then, of course, with a number of fits and starts and failures and discoveries in fact there was. One of the things we noticed in the book is that most entrepreneurs are failures. In other words, it was in the failures, in the losses, that transformed how they grew, and so whenever we see these books saying we got to do this right, you do that right, you there I'm like no, it's not, it's. You know, that's not what I'm finding. When I'm finding is most entrepreneurs are at a history of losses and it was because of how they were being in those, those moments of loss, that made them great entrepreneurs.

Speaker 2: 13:10

I often say my greatest lessons learned are failures. Yeah, I've been an entrepreneur for a couple three decades now, and I'd say my best learning moments were my failures that I overcame. But the biggest point for me was how I came out of it. You know the mindset there. So you work with entrepreneurs. Is it more leadership or is it more Scaling the business, growing the business kind of what do you? What do you bring to the table for entrepreneurs to help them succeed?

Speaker 1: 13:41

It all depends, because you sort of need like what I'm teaching now my workshops is sort of a seven-step system for Strategic success. So you know, first, I think it starts with strategy, because that that's what needs to Be honed and adapted, because generally I find that a lot of entrepreneurs are Working on tactics, not strats, that strategy. What we do first is we usually look at the strategy itself, I mean, is it sound, is it is a powerful, is it, is it going to work? And then then we get into the areas of leadership and structure and culture and all those elements that have to go into Into execution. So it's, it really is a tapestry of things. It's more of an art than a checklist. I mean I really I really Don't like those models, or as well, just fill in the fill in the blanks, yeah, and then you got it. It's like, no, you don't have it.

Speaker 2: 14:38

No, you just filled in the blanks, that's all you did.

Speaker 1: 14:41

Yeah, so it really is a spectrum of things that have to occur, but which, which is needed, really depends on the individual. Some, some entrepreneurs, are Great, but they're they're they're growing too fast and they're having growth pains. So we have to look at issues of capitalization, structure, culture, the people issues. Others, they're not growing, they may have them. I Business that's you know the machines running, but it's not taken off yet. You know they're not getting down the runway. So that's a different way of assessing and helping them.

Speaker 2: 15:15

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Speaker 2: 15:58

Now let's get back to our guest. It's interesting that you're our guest today because it's Q4 of 2023 and a lot of entrepreneurs are strategizing for 2024. They're hoping for a better 2024. And I find that about half of them are making a plan and the others are just hoping it's better. So a lot of times, I find that they don't know how to strategize. What are some guidance you could give to those people that they're just trying to make ends meet week to week but they still want to plan, just to kind of get them going in the right direction. Where do you, where does one start?

Speaker 1: 16:35

I think you start with defining what does winning mean. That was one of the things that came out of. Like, one of my coaches is Mark Levy and he's the guy that helped Simon Sinek take off, and so he's, and so he was helping me. Looking at, you know what is it? I did so, interviewing my clients and things like that. I can't remember some fascinating insights, but he said, basically, it's you're, you're you're focusing on winning and losing, and that's what you're teaching and that's where the book came from.

Speaker 1: 17:07

But the the thing around defining what winning means is something that I think is often lost. It's either it's either we inherit it or I don't know. We sort of wake up in the middle of this thing that we think, oh, I got to do this, but we never step back and say what is winning really mean to me? And then the next question is okay, how do we do it? So, in the hell? I think the, the elements that we're using, and we've been using now for a couple of decades, to grow companies faster, is really simple, ancient work, and it really is around. You know, it's not about analysis, and I I was part of the problem because I was teaching analysis at Johns Hopkins and oh, here's how you do a SWOT analysis, market analysis, a pricing analysis. It was all bullshit. It was just bullshit because there were companies starting off, small entrepreneur company is that all the experts said they're not going to make it. You know, they're doing everything wrong and they and they would just put them down. And then these small companies, for some reason, rise up and dominate their entire industry. You know so that's an interesting event, and I was curious as to what the hell's going on with that. Yeah, you know, southwest Airlines was supposed to never leave Texas. You know, amazon, when that was never going to make it, you know so, all these industry experts, well, now they all shut up because they sort of, like you know, dominating the world.

Speaker 1: 18:37

So I found out that it wasn't about analysis. The strategy has really been intuition, and this has been a timeless insight, but we sort of lost it in our academic studies and what we teach but it's intuitive is shifting your beliefs around the world, around what the world means and that is, and so they saw the world differently in each case, you know. And so the areas where we need to challenge ourselves to see things differently is what our ancestors have been telling us, you know, in order to win you have to understand like, where is the battlefield tomorrow? And a lot of times we don't look at, we don't market segment properly, you know, or we just use the industry segments, we don't really invent our own and then so we don't know what the targets are. The other part is you know who's the real enemy, and we think it's maybe the rivals.

Speaker 1: 19:34

But sometimes customers can be an enemy, sometimes suppliers can be an enemy, sometimes you know it could be technology shifts or information weaponry. I mean there's all kind of areas and the autopsies we've done in dead companies, a lot of the arrows that kill them came in from the back, not the front. So you know where's the battlefield, who's the real enemy. Those are important areas to have an intuitive shift in your beliefs, because once you can get clear on that, then how to win or how to outmaneuver or how to out into it the enemy becomes easier and that's where you come up with a winning formula. So I generally start there, because unless that's clear, you know you just throw on stuff at the wall hoping it sticks. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 20:22

Yeah Well, you mentioned Amazon. You know Amazon is obviously dominating, but a lot of people don't understand how long it takes to dominate. And so I know, with all the social media buzz of 10X your business in 30 days and all the promises and all that stuff, and then you see Amazon can deliver it to your door today. You know everybody wants things real fast. What would you say average? I know it's different for every business, but what would you say is kind of an average? If I'm an entrepreneur and I'm going to sit down and do this strategy, what is the average that it takes to really complete that strategy and then possibly execute it to where you start seeing results? Because I know so many entrepreneurs. They just want to get things done today.

Speaker 1: 21:06

Generally, when we do our strategic planning retreats, it's about a. There's a lot of front-end work that goes on interviews, looking at what's been done already previous plans, previous actions. From that we're able to then design a two-day experience. The execution piece takes a little bit longer because you have to learn how to adapt. It's not a straight line like we teach in business school, a zigzag line. And how do you quickly pivot and adapt is about speed. Essentially, we work on speed of execution because the faster you are, the faster you can adapt in executing that strategy. That never stops. Ten years later you'll still be adapting and responding. That's your way of life when you're running a business. That's it. It doesn't really take months. Here's some people say well, we've been six months with this consultant working our strategy. I'm like you just wasted six months. You're probably doing tactics, not strategy. The strategy should take time.

Speaker 2: 22:24

After someone has a strategy, what would you say is the next step? Would you say that's getting the right people, or is there something else that needs to happen next?

Speaker 1: 22:33

It depends. Some companies are very people-intensive. Some people aren't people-intensive. It's a matter of looking at what that means. If I strike an oil field out here in the backyard, it's not going to be people-intensive. Just put a hole in the ground and it's pumped in my head.

Speaker 1: 22:57

It needs people to get started, but then after that it's just throwing flowing oil. On the other hand, a lot of service businesses, for example, could be much more people-intensive. I think it really gets down to looking at what the next step is. What do I need to execute with speed? Some companies have enough people. Sometimes they have more than enough people. It's a matter of structuring the company's, of a great structure, but it's a matter of getting cultural alignment, getting buying in, getting people to own the execution. Sometimes it's like having leaders that can think at higher levels, because not everybody can.

Speaker 1: 23:36

Dr Elliott Jackson did a lot of great psychological research into this. But some people can't think out three to five years in complex ways. They're great at doing day-to-day work. Sometimes I find a lot of entrepreneurs are frustrated because they don't have the executive team they need. That's a different area. Some may need capitalization. That's a whole different strategy for moving forward. It really depends, because there's really no one way to take it for a step. Generally, what we do in strategic planning is try to walk out with three to five critical success factors. We try to take the winning formula and create what we call compelling saga, which we stole it from the Vikings, we had some sort of story that represents what winning means, how you're going to do it, the elements of that. Once we have that, then I think entrepreneurs should come up with three to five critical success factors, like in order to achieve this saga, in order to win, these are the five things we need to do that's critical for our success. Those then become your next steps.

Speaker 2: 24:45

For the businesses that know what to do and can't seem to get that traction going. Do you have any advice for that?

Speaker 1: 24:53

I would find out why they don't have traction. What's stopping you? Because a lot of times, you learn a lot from doing. This is where analysis, then, can become helpful as to what are the elements that are stopping execution. You expected this project or this activity or something to take this long. It's not. Why not? What's going on that leads to the discovery? Because there you're now taking a loss and creating something wonderful from it. You're able to learn and grow. A lot of entrepreneurs do that, not that everything is going to work.

Speaker 1: 25:33

Like Richard Branson, he's one of the top entrepreneurs in the world. When I was researching biographies of these people when I was writing the book Winners and Losers, his first company in the magazine business didn't make any money. Then he pivoted to records. Then he tried a soda company I think it was called Virgin Cola. That fizzled. Let's try cars Virgin cars. That never revved up. Then Virgin Digital Perfect, obvious. Look, we're going to go from records to digital. It downloads didn't happen. He started fashion companies In Virgin Orbit, the sister company of Virgin Galactic.

Speaker 1: 26:18

It failed a long. I mean they're halting operations. I don't know if they were engaged or not. He's looking at all these failures and you're thinking God, this guy's a failed entrepreneur. Well, no, he's not a failed entrepreneur. It was in the losses of those things that he learned and he adjusted and he adapted and just became stronger. That's, I think, is the journey for entrepreneurs, because we teach people how to win, we don't teach them how to lose. I think we need to teach how to lose, how to lose powerfully. That's one of the things of the book is how to lose powerfully. That's what you should be doing.

Speaker 2: 26:57

Kara Golden, who's the founder of Hintwater, has been on our show and she's a connection of mine. She calls herself the accidental entrepreneur. I find that the most successful entrepreneurs. It usually happened by accident, just like Richard Branson. He kept trying, kept trying until something just stuck. Richard Branson even said, believe, sometime around the, after the paper or whatever failed magazine failed, that he was like if I would have set out to be a billionaire, I would have been bankrupt. That wasn't his ultimate purpose.

Speaker 2: 27:34

For a lot of entrepreneurs I think that sometimes we start something for the wrong reason, we often lose and then we got to start over and pick the pieces up and keep moving on. You mentioned having a business coach, which I love because most successful people have one. I know I have three for three different reasons. I'm not in that bad a shape where I need three business coaches, but one of them is simply an accountability coach Just to keep me on track, and another one's a business and you know, because there's territories I haven't been in and so I want to keep catapulting myself with those that have been there. There are some losses if you don't mind sharing that that you've overcome, just to kind of give a sense to people that we all go through them. And then, how did you overcome those?

Speaker 1: 28:21

Well, I didn't know what I wanted to do. I mean, at one point I wanted to get into medical technology and then that didn't work out. Then I started looking at maybe getting involved with the evolution of computing my engineering background Then that didn't work out. Then I got into this area of research on humans. So what happened Then? Even in that in my current company I had numerous disasters. I tried to focus more on the research and publishing and teaching. So I would hire people to take over the delivery of services, which is where we make the money, so I can focus more on the research. God, that failed probably half a dozen times. I can't tell you how many teams I had to fire that. It was my fault. I hired people that said they were great but they couldn't perform. Then quickly after six months I got to let you go. The problem was I never really tested like I should have. I trusted that because they said they were great and they had a note from their mother that it'd be fine.

Speaker 1: 29:36

But what I should have done is I should have tested it. I was just like here's a small project, see if you can make money on this, or see if you can implement this, see if you can make it happen. So my business model has been tragic, but now I'm linking up with companies that are already functioning, because that way you don't have to test because they're already there, they're already making it happen. So linking up, partnering with the Pacific Institute, as I'm doing now, is what I've learned Now. Should I have told myself that 20 years ago? Yeah, that would have been, that would have saved me millions of dollars? I told myself that.

Speaker 2: 30:15

Yeah, well, I know Darren Hardy often says that you know, because he has that success magazine and he often says that we only see like 5% of people's success. So you know, we see Richard Branson out there on the ocean at Necker Island and doing all these fun things, but then we don't see all the depositions he goes through and you know all those failures and losses and figuring this out and that. So I appreciate you sharing that. We all go through them, no matter what stage of business we're in. I always often say that every business has challenges. They're just different so we never quite get it figured out.

Speaker 2: 30:52

And I know for the startup entrepreneurs like myself that didn't grow up in an entrepreneurial family. I don't see that, I just see successful people. So it's always good to hear that we're always needing to evolve. It's always going to be uncomfortable and I feel like if it is too comfortable, it's not going to be here pretty quick because you need to keep evolving, like you said, adapting. You got to keep changing and helping people. So is there any specific pivot that you would say for a business owner that they need to keep in mind, like kind of like at the end of the road, like I see something coming, I need to pivot, need to do something differently, something that you found to be instrumental in that with entrepreneurs.

Speaker 1: 31:38

Yeah, in fact it came up as I was doing research for the book is that sometimes, you know, like part of the book is I dispel myths that I found that were in the way, and one of the myths was this myth of perseverance. You know, because we're a peer persevering, peer persevering, and you know that's kind of a loaded question because, you know, do I keep going? That's a problem. Like maybe you should pivot, like maybe you should give up, because you know that and that's it. Like you know, like Sears is still going, yeah, they should have pivoted, right, you know what I mean. Yeah, so they should have given up and took a different path.

Speaker 1: 32:24

So there's areas where we need to persevere, of course, you know, like the samurai, like my first book goes on the samurai, so I learned a lot from their leadership. But like you know what's the quotes? Like seven times down, eight times up, like keep getting up, you know. So that's a positive look at persevering. But the other side this is why it's so such an art and not a science is the art of. It is where you're going, not really there. And should you pivot? Yeah, I wish there was a. That's the problem. It's not a black and white answer? It's, it's. You're living in a world of art and creation, you know, and there's some people that just kept persevering, they finally achieved it, but then there's a lot of others that persevered and they and they died. You know, the company wanted her. So what does it mean for you, and how do you know when, to stop persevering on one thing and learn from that and then adjust and adapt?

Speaker 2: 33:23

Yeah, that's a good question, cause all those books just say never give up, keep going. You have a plan, follow the plan. So that's that was the purpose of my question. So any final words of wisdom from from you to share with entrepreneurs who are trying to get over that hump?

Speaker 1: 33:43

No, I think it's. I think don't get caught up in the myths. Personal answer was just one but there's, there's, there's other others, and I find that you always keep learning, you know. In other words, just keep losing powerfully, and there's only certain people that can do that. There's another thing that came out of the research in the book was that some people shouldn't be entrepreneurs. Yeah, you know, I mean, they're brilliant people that function much better in a work environment. Let's somebody else worry about payroll. Yeah, well, entrepreneurs, they seem to have this interesting risk capacity. Yeah, I'll mortgage the house. I'll mortgage on my car, I'll take this. People think you're nuts, right, but that's what you do as an entrepreneur. So that's not for everybody. You know it's not for everybody. So entrepreneurs is not really the cool journey Everybody thinks it is. It's really it's a tough journey and it's not for everyone. And thank God, because if everybody's an entrepreneur, the whole world going to chaos.

Speaker 2: 34:45

Everybody wouldn't have any employees Good ones We'd all be fighting, scratching at each other. So what's the best way to follow? Get in touch with you, get your books, all that good stuff.

Speaker 1: 34:56

For sure. Well, winners and losers is on everywhere. I mean it's nobel, on Amazon, wherever people distribute books. But the website, which is what I'm trying to, you know, and I'm so busy, but I love doing the blog thing and I just I have to say, you know, I go through these runs. I'll do like five or six, and then you want to hear from me because I want to project, but saga leadershipcom, we stole it from the Vikings. S A G, A leadershipcom is. You know, that's probably a good place to start. I'll try to put everything in there.

Speaker 2: 35:31

So yeah, fantastic. Is there a social media platform that you're active on that people can follow yours? Okay, I love it.

Speaker 1: 35:43

I love it.

Speaker 2: 35:45

I love it. Well, we're going to put all this information that you've shared in the show notes, your book and everything. Out of all the books you've written, what is your favorite?

Speaker 1: 35:56

Well, obviously the latest one's always the favorite, right, Right, I've been writing for a few books here and there. High altitude leadership is kind of a more of an epic art. I think I did with Chris Warner the climber. That was fun to read because it was live stories of human survival and death and how we can apply that. But I'm just getting a lot of interest in this because people like you that are inspiring me to look at this entrepreneur segment. I'm finding that to be exciting. So I'm looking forward to doing a lot more work in that area. So my latest book, I guess I would say is my favorite, but it transitions right. I mean, ask me a few months and I'll have another answer.

Speaker 2: 36:37

Yeah, it's been a minute since I've written my last book and I'm so done with that book, but it's a good book. I'm ready to write another one, but, uh but. But you have good ones coming out, so I don't need to so well, I appreciate your time today. You've been a joy. You've helped a lot of people today, inspired, and I wish you continued success and thanks again for being on our show. Great Thanks for having me.

Speaker 2: 37:02

Welcome to the recap and coaches corner the podcast section for business owners for applicable insights to create a business that runs seamlessly even without you. In today's recap section, I want to leave you with a powerful reminder, as we dialed in to the essentials that every business needs to be successful. Creating a business that runs seamlessly without your constant presence requires three things. They are strategy, intentionality and action. Creating a business that can run without you is not about just doing things to do things, in other words, trying to stay busy, thinking more hours will make a difference. It's about cultivating a resilient and self-sufficient organization with intentionality, and the only way to do that is with a plan, a strategy, if you will, and by taking action.

Speaker 2: 37:57

Stepping over into the coaches corner, I want to share with you one actionable item that you can intentionally take action on to move your business towards being a more self-sufficient, seamless operation. Here's your actionable nugget Delegate strategically, identify tasks that don't require your unique skill and empower your team to handle them. By doing this, you not only free up your time, but also foster a culture of trust and collaboration within your organization. If you need help identifying the task that you should delegate first, which is most business owners challenge, email me at michael at michaldmorsencom and ask for our delegation quadrant, which I'll send to you for free. Remember, sustainable growth is rooted in the ability to empower others and build a business that thrives independently.

Speaker 2: 38:54

Thank you for listening to Small Business Pivots. Don't forget to subscribe and share this podcast. If you need help growing your business, go to businessownershipsimplifiedcom and schedule a free conversation by clicking the orange button in the top right corner. If you have a guest or topic suggestion for our podcast or just want to talk anything small business related, email me at michael at michaldmorsencom. We'll see you next time on Small Business Pivots.