Christin G. Gutierrez (00:00):
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.
Kevin Bees (00:13):
It's very inspiring to hear someone like yourself who started up so many different businesses and had so much success - that now you're leveraging that for other people, it's interesting to me that your businesses have been in very different areas, and I wonder about your level of risk tolerance. Did you ever see…
Christin G. Gutierrez (00:34):
Oh, it's insane.
(00:35):
Yeah, my risk tolerance is insane, but physical risks, none. I cannot take any physical risks. You won't see me jumping out of a plane or riding a motor motorcycle, but business risks, I am willing to risk it all because I know what I'm capable of. I know that I have the skills to make things work. I know that whatever I don't know, I can research and I can learn. And that's why learning is such a big pillar of my program. “The Incremental Steps Framework” - it's basically incremental learning and then incremental implementation. So it's so powerful because not only do you need to learn, but you have to take that knowledge and put it into action. And I think that those are two of the things that a lot of entrepreneurs, or people, are missing, is that they get so caught up in the day-to-day and what it is that they think that they need to do.
(01:34):
That kind of learning takes this back burner approach for them that they're like, oh, maybe they'll write it down on the to-do list. I need to research that. I need to research this. And it doesn't really happen because learning is not their main focus. Making money is their main focus. And it's kind of like in the Bible, whenever God asks Solomon, what do you want? And he asked for wisdom. He could have said, make me a millionaire or a billionaire, or whatever. Give me all of the money. He could have said, give me all of these possessions. But he asked for wisdom. And if you seek wisdom, all of the other things will come to you. It's the knowledge and the wisdom that you need, so that when you do make money, you don't lose it, because you know what to do with it.
(02:18):
And I think that that is the reason why I've owned so many different businesses is that ability to learn and to know that it doesn't matter if I don't know it right now, I will find that information and I will learn it, and I will implement it. Because knowledge by itself is actually kind of useless. There's a lot of people, they're out there and they're buying all of these books and all of these courses, and they're taking all of these webinars and these challenges, and they're attending all of these events, and it's just the accumulation of knowledge for knowledge sake it, they're not taking any action from it. They just are in this insatiable quest for more and more knowledge. And the bad thing about that is that when you get on the path to learning and only learning, you actually get overwhelmed. You get information overload.
(03:18):
So you can have this idea of a business that you want to start, and if you spend all of your time on learning everything there is to know about that subject and becoming the best expert and authority on that. But you don't take any of that knowledge and put it into action. That's pointless. You can have someone who's the smartest person in the world, but if they take no action, no one will benefit from it. Or you can take someone who knows one 10th as much as them, but they're able to take what they learn and take that and mold it into something that will benefit this world, and they step out and they take the next step. That's why my whole motto is, take the next step. It's because without that next step, you're not going anywhere. It takes steps to gain momentum. And so many people are afraid of that next step that they never even take it. What's the worst thing that could happen if you take the next step? It doesn't work out. You realize that maybe this step was the wrong one, and now you need to pivot and go in a different direction. At least you're going somewhere. But if you take no steps at all, you're just stagnant. You're not going anywhere. Dreams have already died.
Kevin Bees (04:35):
That's really powerful - really powerful, and taking the next step is such a great way to summarize that. And I think it's important. A lot of people do get stuck on that, not taking a next step, being fearful of the next step, easier to stay in the status quo, even if it's not what you really want, because that's safe. So that's why I was intrigued about your level of risk tolerance, because my level of risk tolerance is significantly lower. I started out as an employee, as an accountant, and when you were at step by step, that sounds great. Great to me. Yeah.
Christin G. Gutierrez (05:11):
And I think that that's the way for people to become more comfortable with risk. Because when you tell someone, Hey, you've gotta risk it all - you've got to risk all of your money and all of your time and all of your emotions, you put everything into your business idea for it to work. You've got to give all of yourself to it, right? And the risk of that is that if it doesn't work, you might feel like you failed and you might be tempted to give up and to not try again. And you might have to file bankruptcy, or you could go through a foreclosure, or your car could get repossessed. These things could happen, but what's the alternative? What could happen if you take this risk and it does go right, how many lives could be changed? How much more could you do if you just started taking these small steps toward that goal?
(06:14):
So when you talk to somebody about “you're going to have to risk it all”. That sounds overwhelming, but when you tell somebody, you have to risk the next step. You have to just step outside of your comfort zone, away from everything that is your current normal. You have to say, no, I'm not going to keep it status quo. I'm not going to do what feels safe. I'm not going to do what feels comfortable. I'm going to do it afraid, and I'm going to take one step. And you know what? You take that step and it was freaking scary, but then you do it again and it's still scary ,and you do it again. And pretty soon you've taken a thousand steps and it's a little less scary. But here's the thing, if you are not scared every single day by what you're doing, your dreams aren't big enough. You should be scared because you are capable of so much more. So that's the key, is to wake up every single day and ask yourself, how can I scare myself today?
Kevin Bees (07:33):
Yeah. Yeah. That's a great question. That's a great question. See, and you talk about the risks of jumping out of an airplane - I've done that significant amount of times. I'm happy with that risk. I kind of calculated the risk there, and I think I'm okay with the odds in my favor and you know you can do enough training for that kind of thing. But I like that point of taking more risks. And actually, the key thing is: you're going to have to risk the next step. Risk that next step, and then you're good. So this has been brilliant. Christin, I can't thank you enough for your time. You really have This's a really great episode here.
Christin G. Gutierrez (08:09):
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.
