Episode 002 - Kevin Bees

Get ready for an inspiring interview with Kevin Bees, the mastermind behind Profit Hive and a top-rated coach who was trusted by Tony Robbins' to coach his top clients. 

On Model the Master podcast, Christin delves into Kevin's remarkable journey from the corporate world to becoming a Chartered Global Management Accountant, Master NLP Practitioner, and Strategic Interventionist. Discover how Kevin helps his clients achieve profit maximization, and get motivated to take your own entrepreneurial journey to new heights!

Transcript

Christin G. Gutierrez (02:12):

Welcome to Model the Master Podcast, brought to you by Increpreneur, where we believe the fastest path to personal and professional growth is to model those who have gone before us. I'm your host, Christin Gutierrez. Today we're talking with Kevin Bees. Kevin is Australia's leading profit maximization expert with over two decades of experience. As a senior leader, financial strategist and international speaker, Kevin has worked with organizations like Airbus, Intel Corporation, Qantas Business, Travel Hills Hoist, and thousands of small to medium size business owners to improve their results. He is the host of the podcast “Life-Changing Questions” and has been trusted by Tony Robbins to speak at several of his events and to coach his top level clients. Welcome to the show Kevin.

Kevin Bees (02:58):

Thank you for such a kind introduction. I wish my mother-in-law could hear this.

Christin G. Gutierrez (03:02):

Right. Well hopefully she'll be watching.

Kevin Bees (03:06):

Hopefully.

Christin G. Gutierrez (03:07):

So tell me a little bit about being a Profit Maximization Expert. What is that, and how did you become a profit maximization expert?

Kevin Bees (03:14):

Really great question. So my background originally was in accounting and finance. And as I got very skilled at understanding the numbers of the business, I began to realize that if I understand the numbers I can help make tweaks and changes to businesses that help them grow profitability, cash flow, get time back, etc. Early in my career I was working for large companies and they sent me to the business units that were broken and weren't working. And it was my job to go in there and fix it and understand, what's the issue here? What needs to change to help this business turn around and become more profitable? And what actually happened when I got into our organization, is typically when an organization isn't functioning at its optimum, there ends up being problems with the team in terms of their emotions, their feelings.

(04:00):

So I could go these distances and see what the issue was, but then I would be sitting in the office and I'd have these people coming in and crying on me. And the best I had for them was like, “Oh, there you go, have a tissue. And so perfect. It wasn't really the best strategy. I had technical skills, but I didn't really have the people skills. So I went and learned all these skills, all the things I could about leadership and helping to change their mindset. And what I found in the process was that, well, I learned how to change my own mindset, and things weren't fixed. These things I believed about myself that were limiting me, I didn't need to believe them. It changed those beliefs, changed that mindset and did different things. And so when we discovered that, I think I had this realization that the work I was doing in the corporate career, whilst it was highly remunerated and was very good for my career - it wasn't quite fulfilling for me. So I realized at that point I wanted to go and help business owners. And so that's what I stepped out. That is an interesting combination there with understanding the business strategy sheet and understanding the psychology and the mindset. Those two go very well together. And of course, if you're a business owner who doesn't want to have more profitability in their business.

Christin G. Gutierrez (05:18):

Exactly. Exactly. So I was reading that you're actually a master practitioner of NLP, is that correct?

Kevin Bees (05:24):

Yes, that's correct, yes.

Christin G. Gutierrez (05:27):

Oh, that's very exciting. I am also a master practitioner of NLP. 

Kevin Bees (05:31):

Fantastic. Well then we're in a very good place.

Christin G. Gutierrez (05:34):

Yes, yes. So take me back to your lowest point in your life. Okay. What was something that someone said to you or a question they may have asked you that just completely turned around your life and changed the trajectory of it?

Kevin Bees (05:52):

Yeah, so you probably picked up on my accent already that I'm from the UK. I live in Australia now, but back probably in about 2007, I felt I was firmly on track with everything. I had a career going in a great direction. I was a financial controller at Airbus, making wings for aircraft and I had my house, had my partner, we were engaged, ready to get married. I had the car that I wanted and everything was on track. And then I went away for a weekend with my fiance. And during that weekend, at some point she decided to say that she didn't want to marry me. Now mind you, we're a few weeks out from this wedding. We arranged and left. I was devastated. Well, it generally was and it was a big shock. I didn't think I'd ever experienced anything like that.

(06:41):

It was almost like my head was booming and I couldn't really comprehend it. And yeah, I think it kind of really rocked my world. It wasn't something I was expecting. I thought we were set forever. I didn't think there were any issues. And what followed that? That was a catalyst for a few things going wrong. Over the next week I was driving into work and some guy with a fast car and reactions ran into the back of me. And when I get into the office that week, this amazing project that I was brought in to do, we were going to be building factories - best thing ever - a billion euros into the region. Well politically that work could be sold to Spain. So it wasn't going to be happening. So this big project I had wasn't there, and the work I was going to do wasn't there.

(07:26):

So effectively my role was redundant now because of those combinations of factors. I would've needed my partner for the house we had together, and now I was going to have no money so I was going to potentially lose my house as well. So it was a pretty bad point. And back then I didn't have any of the skills or training I have now around understanding my psychology and mindset and what to do about it. And I dealt with it the best way I knew, which was drowning my sorrows into some drinks. So I go to the pub and drink more than I should have. This went on for a period of weeks and probably months until one night I was sat there with a friend called Matt. He has no skills of training in any of this stuff, but he just reflected something.

(08:05):

He was like, “Hey, I was in a similar situation, and when I was in this situation,” he said, “my dad said to me, Matt, in five years time you're going to look back at this point and realize that it was a turning point in your life. It's up to you which way you want to turn”. And when he said that, it just really clicked with me because I was in this situation, I was pretty low. I don't think I could have gone much lower. And so whether or not this is a turning point is up to me, which way I turn, what I don't want to turn into (more of that), I don't want to turn the other way, etc. In five years from now, what would I want to have happened? And I realized I'd always wanted to travel and spend a decent amount of time overseas.

(08:48):

And I hadn't. Of course I didn't have all of those. Problems that were issues all of a sudden became advantages. If I was losing my job, I'd get a small pay out. Well there's my travel fund. If I am going to go overseas, well I don't actually need to be in my house. I could work out a way to get funding and rent out this car that I was concerned about. Well I could deal with it for the insurance then that's not an issue anymore. And in fact, I didn't have a partner, so I had this freedom to go where I wanted to do the things that I wanted. So that one question flipped, flipped the whole situation, same situation, but I felt very differently about it. I felt rather than a victim, I felt freed and liberated to go into all these amazing things and opportunities.

(09:33):

Now that one question actually has put my life on a whole different path because I took a year out, I went through South America through New Zealand. The plan was to go to Australia, Asia and then back to the UK. But somewhere in the middle I got to Australia. There was a guy I used to work with in the UK and he said he really needed some help in the business he was in. So I started working there and somehow we had a debate, and at some point he said, I want to sponsor you to stay in the country. And I said, no, I'm going to travel, I'm going to keep traveling. He said, no, I'm going to sponsor you. And he won. And that turned into me getting a passport in the country. And I think I'm just super lucky now. I get to live right near the beach. We have a house with a pool. It’s amazing. Never would've had any of those things in the uk. It just wouldn't have been a thing. It wouldn't happen. 

Christin G. Gutierrez (10:26):

What a great reframe.

Kevin Bees (10:28):

It was an amazing reframe! and I've used it again and again on myself and with other clients. So it led to me having a beautiful wife and two beautiful children. I get to do the work that I enjoy. No, I don't have to commute. I get to work from home - I guess a lot of people do that given the pandemic over the last couple of years. But I have a lot of time, flexibility and get to work with business owners that I really like, and make a really positive difference with them growing their possibilities.

Christin G. Gutierrez (11:05):

Yeah, you definitely made the right choice.

Kevin Bees (11:09):

Thank you.

Christin G. Gutierrez (11:10):

What would you say is the biggest obstacle that prevents business owners from succeeding?

Kevin Bees (11:42):

I think this has a few different factors. The biggest, you've already alluded to, which is the psychology and the mindset. My example, back before: I gave the team the strategy sheet. Here are the things that we need to do. This is it. Step by step we do these things and this business will return to profitability and it will grow profitably, and we'll tidy these systems up. But they weren't able to do it when they were in this emotional state where they were crying and they needed the tissues. They couldn't really comprehend and put together these strategies. They couldn't implement them because the head wasn't in the right space. And I've seen this all the time with the business owners I work with. I'll give you an example, I was working with an immigration agency yesterday. And again, we know the strategy, we know exactly what needs to happen.

(12:31):

We've given them the training on how to do the sales process. We rehearsed it. They're very well drilled in that and we got to the stage where it was working and we raised the prices up because the value was there. However, there are team members in that team who psychologically can't compute that, that's a fair price to charge. They're thinking “I'm getting paid this amount per hour and we're charging this.” So they're trying to relate it to the rate they’re being paid, not the time. And that's an issue, because if they are there doing the sales process and they psychologically don't believe that this is good for the client, then at some level, it's going to be conveyed on the other end. They're not going to have the conviction of it being a good thing to do.

(13:21):

Energetically, the client's going to feel that. So that's one example of many, for business owners in particular, and I think one of the strongest. It is all about belief and mindset, but one of the strongest ones in all of this is identity: how the business owner actually sees themselves. If they don't actually have a concept that they're A, they're a business owner or a B, that they're a growing business owner, guess what? They're not going to act in a way of being a business owner or a growing business owner. They're going to be acting like an employee looking for people to tell them what to do. They’re looking for people to give them permission to do things. So that psychology mindset piece, how we define ourselves is really going to be how we show up.

(14:09):

So if we have an image of ourselves that's not true,: I’m a loser, I'm a failure and things don't work out for me, etc. then guess what? You're going to show up in ways to prove that. But if you have this belief that you are someone who succeeds, and you grow, excel, you're hardworking, well of course you're going to behave in accordance with those things as well. So I convey a couple things there, but key pieces: it's our mindset and our beliefs, especially our beliefs about ourselves. So if you answer yourself, who am I? And you've got anything negative there, you want to take some time to redefine that. Reframe it. Even something as simple as I had a client who said, “I am a terrible sleeper. I'm a terrible sleeper.” And guess what? They were a -

Christin G. Gutierrez (14:51):

Terrible sleeper.

Kevin Bees (14:52):

Yeah. So we shifted the record, we redefined it. “I'm an amazing sleeper and that's my belief”. And guess what? I could sleep anywhere. Probably places I maybe shouldn't be sleeping, but I'm an amazing sleeper. So we begin to change these identities around us and work with that and find ways to support that. And it's amazing once people start to genuinely see themselves and the way things change. Lady I spoke to yesterday had the problem with sleeping. She shifted that around, she changed her belief around that. Now I don't know if changing the belief was the thing that helped her. But, she's a great sleeper now. She's getting her seven or eight hours every night. Whereas before she would struggle to get any. Once we changed that belief around, that was a big part of it. Her body started wanting to act in accordance with that.

Christin G. Gutierrez (16:13):

Absolutely a hundred percent. I see it time and time again. Even something as simple as someone who wants to start a business saying “I want to be an entrepreneur one day” or “I want to be a business owner one day”,  and that's such a huge hurdle to try to overcome because they don't see themselves as one right now. And you tend to see those people months and years and decades later, they're still saying the same thing. And the people who say, I am an entrepreneur, I am a business owner. Whether the evidence of that is obvious to others right now or not, it doesn't matter. Those people are and they identify as one and as a consequence you see that they do follow through typically with their goals and their dreams because they are already identifying as one. And if you're an entrepreneur, what does an entrepreneur do? They start a business, they run a business. They don't allow setbacks and failures to keep them down. So identity is super, super important to make sure that you know what you want to happen, and that you become the type of person who would do the type of things that would have the results that person would have.

Kevin Bees (17:24):

One hundred percent. What you just said there is so valuable. Let me give another example. So I'll take an example of health. I decided that I wanted to run a marathon and I just started telling people I am a marathon runner. I hadn't run that far, I'd never gone anywhere near that far. Now the amazing thing that happens once you say that - there's one thing saying it yourself, but once you verbalize that to other people - 

Christin G. Gutierrez (18:06):

They’re going to be watching.

Kevin Bees (18:08):

They're going to be asking you, “Hey, how's your training going?” But even better than that, not just that they're asking you how it's going because they're interested - all of a sudden people start to show up and bring you resources or things to help you. So someone said, “Hey, here you go. Here's a training plan.” Or “Have you read that book?” Or “Have you considered this type of shoe?” And so of course they start telling you these things to help you. And then those things also support and guide you all the way. So it's one thing for us to get right internally. But the other thing is voicing it out to others and it brings resources and opportunities to you. And of course there's an added level of commitment. Cause you don't want to be the person who says, I'm a marathon learner and then not run a marathon. It would just feel too - 

Christin G. Gutierrez (18:51):

That reminds me of the story of how when I met my husband, he always told me that he was vegan, but he obviously was not <laugh>. So for years and years and years he tried to talk me into going vegan and I'm just like, you're not even vegan yourself. And he's like, but I identify as one. So that just didn't match, right. But I wound up going whole food plant based and now I completely see what he saw. So you never know: your identity shift and where you start identifying as an entrepreneur or as a marathon runner or as a non-smoker or whatever your identity shift is, could actually open the door for someone else to come along for that same ride and give them their own identity shift by watching you.

Kevin Bees (19:59):

I had that experience with a client this week. So she runs an accounting practice and one of the things I work with my clients on is it’s one thing for us to have the success and growth of the business. But I believe success is holistic. If we're having the business grow, but we are not having the type of relationships to the family, and we're not having other areas of health - but all of that can detract from all the success in business. We've seen people who had a very successful business and yet got a divorce and lost it or people who had a very successful business but didn't take care of their health and they're in hospital. So it needs to be holistic success. But this week I was so happy to hear her on the call. See,  we're in Australia, so people typically take January off because it's summertime.

(20:43):

She came back: we're in February now. And she was excited because she reviewed her numbers for the last year and revenue had grown just a little bit over 40%, which was exciting. But it was more exciting. She said she'd been doing the health rituals and over the last month she'd actually dropped four kilos of weight and she was doing it in a really sustainable way, which is exciting. But the kicker, to your point: she said her husband is being inspired by what she's doing and he's stopped drinking alcohol or really cut back on the alcohol, which is making his mood better and their relationship better. Now it's not my job, I'm not a health expert, that's not what I'm working at. But because we're working on the business end, addressing the holistic success, these other things can happen. So when you get your mindset right in one place, it can have very positive ripple effects on the other areas.

(21:30):

So, you just absolutely step up and make a change. I'll give you one more example on that particularly for those of you who are parents and have children. Your kids are watching everything you're doing all the time. They're like sponges for what you do. And there was one of the things I was challenging myself with: So one of my favorites was cold water and literally at the beach I couldn't even get in the ocean on the hottest day of the year. It was too cold for me. And I would go stand under and I mentally 30 seconds I went 30 seconds, 30, yep. Done. That's it. Cause I would literally have this kind of response because it was too painful for me.

(22:17):

And so I've done some things about that: I've gone and done at a retreat where there are ice baths and you get in the ice baths and go into cold showers. I found a way through this pain, through this fear and I'm able to do it now. And every Sunday is my ritual now to have an ice bath. And I've been doing this for three months now. And this weekend it was so cute because my four year old and six year-old said, daddy, we want to do it too.

(22:49):

They've been watching that for three months and I want to give that a go and they're excited and they will try it. And that’s not to say from this story that you shall be doing ice bath cold showers because that may not be a thing for you, but that was a challenge for me and that is a thing that I will do. But the point is that people around you are watching and they'll be inspired by your action.

Christin G. Gutierrez (23:12):

Absolutely. And that's something to really keep in mind, that your children are watching you and they're either going to watch you building positive habits or negative ones. They're forming who they're going to be, who their identity is going to be whenever they get older, by watching you. So if they see you never giving up, constantly pushing in, keeping going despite setbacks, despite failures and going after your dreams, then you're going to raise children who will also identify that way: go after their own dreams and fight their own battles. I see so many children nowadays that are just handicapped once they get older because they didn't learn anything positive. It's just all negative. And that's one of the greatest responsibilities we have as parents is to make sure that our children are going to be able to model good behavior.

Kevin Bees (24:07):

100, 110%, everything you say is so on the money today and the environment is so key to that. And I guess as parents we set a lot of that environment and we have a big amount of control over that, i.e. knowing how we learn and their environment is key and what we're feeding their brain with: we could allow them to sit there and watch YouTube in an uncontrolled way and go on social media where can be a lot of negativity. Or we can keep books in front of them,  that we know have the right kind of knowledge, information that's really going to help the brain. And I mean it is really interesting what they remember and what they stick to. We'll do simple things. We're reading books on the planets in the solar system and it’s amazing how excited they can get about that stuff, and learning about the world and what's alive out there and what's possible. So yeah it goes as much for us: what do we have in our environment? Do we have the type of environment around us that is going to set us up to win, or do we have a type of environment that's going to hold us back and pull us down?

Christin G. Gutierrez (25:11):

and we can learn from our children too, from that excitement and learning new things. That's one of the ways that we can change our identity, is by going back and capturing that excitement to learn again. I think that once you stop learning… I mean it's pretty much over for you, but there are so many people walking around existing because they've stopped learning, they're not actually living anymore. So yes, 100% we can learn from our children that excitement and that joy of creating new experiences and learning new things. And then also, like you were saying, that environment is so important. Not just the environment around your children but the environment around you too. Proximity is power. And I think that many of us as entrepreneurs have this tendency to shut ourselves off and just put our heads down and get our work done and we're just going to come out the gate swinging. But we really need people around us that can encourage us and support us and lift us up and help us strive to be better people. So that's why I love these podcast interviews where you get to meet new people and learn new things and be able to model behaviors from people that you might not have been able to meet in any other situation. So environment 100% so powerful, so important - 

Kevin Bees (26:41):

So powerful, so important. Couple really valid things that reflects on: You said see the world through your children's eyes. That's such a great opportunity for anyone listening to not just hear that think, oh yeah, okay. But to actually do that, what if next time you pick up your house or your living room, you literally pick up the children's glasses and see the world, that you see differently and you behave differently. Most of us have become rigid in our routines and our patterns and how we use our body. But what if we move like children? 

Christin G. Gutierrez (27:21):

 <laugh>.

Kevin Bees (27:22):

What happens if you do that? all of a sudden you, you're shifting your physiology, you're moving a different way, you're making a different stand, and you get a very different feeling inside you. Different chemicals are released, different energies released. So what would happen? What would change? Would that be a good thing or a bad thing?

Christin G. Gutierrez (28:01):

Right. So what actionable tips or techniques or strategies would you have that would be the number one tip that you would give to our listeners about achieving success?

Kevin Bees (28:17):

Achieving success? I'll say two parts. So achieving success or achieving success in business. So success, this is one definition that never leaves me. It’s by Earl Nightingale, and he said that “success is the progressive realization worthy ideal”. So in the progressive, realizing an ideal or vision. So number one is that we need to have a vision of what we want and we need to get clear on that vision. People are just like, “I want to be successful”. What does that mean for you? Success is really in the context of your values. What may make success for Christin? “I accomplished A-Thing” may not be a success for me because my values may be different, I may value different things. Success for me in the past, would it be having a good job, paying off the mortgage? That would've been a success for me.

(29:08):

And that's very valid, but was very surly driven by being about safety. At this stage of my life it is actually a little bit more about freedom and flexibility. So my values have changed over time. So what success now means is more about having that freedom. So being able to work in a certain way, while also having a certain lifestyle, and being able to really impact people. And so if I accomplished that vision that I had in the past, I wouldn't be fulfilled by that now. So we're making progress, if we’re taking action on that every single day. Don’t let a day go by where you're not moving toward your vision in some way. And I appreciate we can all get wrapped up in life and day-to-day things, but there's always space to be moving toward that. You can shoehorn half an hour, 30 minutes to an hour doing something toward that vision every day. Providing you’re moving there than that’s

(30:06):

success in a business context. Do you have a clear vision for your business? Where do you want to be in five, 10 years from now? Right? Where do you want to be in the next 3 years? Where in the next 1 year, where do you want to be in the next 90 days? If we can get that bigger vision of where you want to be and then work backwards. Well, if we're making the actions today over the next 90 days and that's supporting the year, five years and 10 years, every 90 days, you're going to be moving towards that vision. And that's progressive realization of the ideal. And given that we are on Model the Master Podcast, there's a clue there as well. Success leaves clues. So if you've got that vision and it's a 10 year vision -  who's already there? Who's already accomplished it and how did they do that?

(30:50):

Go and go and ask them, how did you do that? Can you show me how? And the chances are it will cut your learning curve very quickly. I see this frequently with my clients. I've spent two decades now really understanding business and I can give them the most important pieces they need and they can get momentum to move forwards faster in three months, six months they're flying. 
So a few answers there, but: get a clear vision, move toward it every day and find ways to speed it up by speaking with masters, and listen to this podcast because you get some of those masters delivered straight to you.

Christin G. Gutierrez (31:28):

Thank you. Thank you. I agree absolutely with all those suggestions that you just gave. So spot on. Love it. Well, I really appreciate you coming by the show today. I just have one last question before you go. Would you rather have a second chance at a failed business or a new opportunity to start a new one?

Kevin Bees (31:55):

I think I'm going to choose a new opportunity to start a new one. If I've failed in something, then I've already taken the lessons -  I've already learned from it, that was meant to happen for a reason - that failure, that engagement breakdown, it happened for a reason, right? And I've learned from that. So whatever the new opportunity that comes up, I'm going to take all that knowledge or wisdom I had from before, and jump into this one. This one will be even more successful. So yes, I'll take a new opportunity. Never go back, never regret. We're moving forward.

Christin G. Gutierrez (32:27):

I love it. I love it. Thank you so much for being on Model The Master. We've been speaking with Kevin Bees. Don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review if you found value in this episode. And until next time, remember, I believe in you. You've been listening to Model the Master Podcast, brought to you by Increpreneur. If you found value, please remember to subscribe and leave us a review and until next time. Remember to take the next step.