SPEAKER_00 0:00

A lot of businesses owners don't actually own businesses. They own stressful jobs with branding. What does that mean about that?

SPEAKER_01 0:10

You're saying a lot of business owners don't own a business. They own a stressful job with branding.

SPEAKER_00 0:17

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 0:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 0:19

And they have Jet? Herald.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

Business.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Handle it.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Okay, let's get to it.

SPEAKER_00 0:31

Let's get to it. Let's get to it. What's up? What's up, Hero?

SPEAKER_01 0:34

Is your business addicted to you?

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Most likely.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

You think so?

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 0:39

Maybe.

SPEAKER_00 0:39

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Interested. So today is our fourth episode in Soulpreneur to Enterprise, and we're talking about revenue that scales.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

Awesome. That's awesome. Well, I would be the main point.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

So today we're going to discuss stop trading your time for money. Right. Next is pricing and package strategy and how you should approach that. And then three is predictable revenue. And the interesting thing is we're actually going through this in our own business right now.

SPEAKER_02 1:11

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:12

So the things that we baked into our plan to discuss today are things that we actually need to discuss about our business and we've been actively working on.

SPEAKER_00 1:22

Yes, for sure. For sure. That is super interesting.

SPEAKER_01 1:26

So let's make it an advisory session for ourselves.

SPEAKER_00 1:29

Yes, let's do it.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:31

Let's do it. Before we tap into it, do you want to give the audience an update about the Owens retreat?

SPEAKER_01 1:41

Yeah, go for it.

SPEAKER_00 1:44

I don't remember much about it because it was like a month ago.

SPEAKER_01 1:48

Because you had what happened there? No, I'm just drunk one time. Were you drinking too much? The memory is faded.

SPEAKER_00 1:56

Yes. My buys. What else?

SPEAKER_01 2:01

Pina Coladas. We had a oh boy, what was that shot called in Spanish?

SPEAKER_00 2:06

Oh, uh Total Mojito. Total mojado.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

Total mojado.

SPEAKER_00 2:11

That was that was that was a good shot though.

SPEAKER_01 2:14

That was it. We met that uh the couple that we met there, they just got married, and the husband, they're from Texas. They were really cool people. So if you're watching, congratulations. Hope that would the marriage is going well. Yeah. They were a great couple. And they at the bar, the pool bar, that's what my bar, they bought everyone, or they didn't buy. It's inclusive, all inclusive, right? But they ordered everyone around a Toto Majado. And basically, I'm not gonna say what it means in English. I think it'll be like censored, but basically it's what is it? Is it vodka or tequila?

SPEAKER_00 2:47

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 2:47

It's some kind of shot, and then all the juices, so like pineapple, like mango, whatever juices that they have behind the bar.

SPEAKER_00 2:55

Yeah. Yeah, it was it was good.

SPEAKER_01 2:58

It was Jet's first experience having different types of drinks, like different cocktails and things like that.

SPEAKER_00 3:05

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

You had an espresso martini. What'd you think about that?

SPEAKER_00 3:08

I did not like it.

SPEAKER_01 3:09

He hated it. I but he's not a big coffee fan. Yeah. However, when we did our tax celebration, he had an espresso.

SPEAKER_00 3:18

The chat, yeah. Yes. I can do that.

SPEAKER_01 3:21

But with uh it's quick and easy.

SPEAKER_00 3:23

Yeah, with the alcohol mist, that was tough.

SPEAKER_01 3:26

Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 3:28

So you know something interesting? Uh Honest Retreat was great. Uh it was a great opportunity to sit down and plan uh for the business and also get out of the day-to-day activities to be able to think uh about the business for the future. Uh also I think you were completely right. Uh, once we got into the honest retreat, I'll once we got out of the honest retreat, I came back super energized, ready, ready to invest more time in the business and get it to the next level. And so that has been pretty good. I think honest retreat have had the results that we wanted to achieve.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

So and we were able to actually spend time thinking about okay, what are we do, what are we good at? What's going well, and then move past that and say, okay, now what can we improve? Which there's always room room for improvement, no matter how great you are. And we're really in that stage now where it's like, hey, this is the stage where most businesses become stagnant because we're we're profitable and making a decent amount of money, right? And we could become very stagnant and stay like this forever. Yeah. Or we can increase momentum, restructure, revamp, and make sure that we're one, servicing our clients to the best of our ability, and two, we're efficient internally too.

SPEAKER_00 4:58

For sure, for sure. Um, I agree with you, and it definitely came at the much needed time. Uh I would definitely advise business owners to do the owner's retreat right after the busy season and before the slow time, because the slow time gives you the opportunity to invest time inside the state.

SPEAKER_01 5:20

Implement new processes, implement and restructure all of those valuable things.

SPEAKER_00 5:26

Yeah, something else interesting before jumping back into topic. You know that my brother listened to the podcast. That's true. Every day it comes out.

SPEAKER_01 5:36

Shout out to Jet's brother. We appreciate you.

SPEAKER_00 5:39

So thank you, brother. Thank you. His name is Jesus, actually. I know. Thank you, Jesus for blessing us with your time.

SPEAKER_01 5:48

He's a good brother.

SPEAKER_00 5:49

Have you met him?

SPEAKER_01 5:50

You're lucky, yes. I met him.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

When did you met him?

SPEAKER_01 5:53

He came to my house to get something.

SPEAKER_00 5:55

But with that being said, uh he probably is not going to like this conversation we had. Because I don't think I have told him about all the drinking we did at the Onis Retreat.

SPEAKER_01 6:09

So he's going to come out and say, like we like out of drinking too.

SPEAKER_00 6:12

No, you actually were not. I was a one.

SPEAKER_01 6:16

I was a one I had a little bit to drink, not that much though.

SPEAKER_00 6:20

So another thing that uh came out of Onus Retreat is that you gave me a really hard feedback.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:33

Do you remember what was the feedback? Can you can can you tell people about it?

SPEAKER_01 6:37

So the feedback was some clients seem to struggle with his accent.

SPEAKER_02 6:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:44

And here's some feedback that I've received from the clients. Is one, they have trouble understanding him, which I like I can understand him really well, but I understand having that disconnect and having that be an issue. But then the second one is some people are concerned with his understanding of the tax knowledge or laws and things in the US because he's not, he was not born here, right? But he is a citizen here and he passed the CPA exam just like every other CPA. Um, and something interesting is that I've met a lot of people who's at the level of jet, right?

SPEAKER_00 7:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:21

And I did not want a business partner initially. But when I met you, we had similar visions, and the strategy and the insights that you have are second to no one. The level of attention to detail is second to no one. Yeah. So I wouldn't choose anyone else. And that's pretty much what I tell my clients. I'm like, I understand. The second part is irrelevant.

SPEAKER_00 7:44

There's never gonna be a time where you I was I I always talk more about the first part.

SPEAKER_01 7:52

Okay, but I'm just saying the second part's irrelevant is what I mean. And you're you're always educating yourself more than I think most people do. Yeah. Um, but the first part, so the difficulty of understanding, especially something as delicate and and as sensitive as taxes and understanding like a strategy or understanding your tax work and your money, your financials. I underst I do understand that concern.

SPEAKER_00 8:18

I agree, I agree. So, yes, uh the one I took out more personally and I'm working to improve is about the accent. And what I realize is that a lot of time I get really excited and I speak really fast. And sometimes I don't realize how the way I am behaving uh goes towards comes out through the class. It comes out through the class, and then the the accent thing is just slowing down a little bit more, which I am intentionally trying to do. And right now in this podcast, you probably see me speaking funny.

SPEAKER_01 9:05

No, I have noticed lately that you have slowed down. Yeah, I've noticed lately that you have slowed down and that you've been more articulate, like using your um, like your mouth, I don't know, like you've been mouth. Mouthing.

SPEAKER_00 9:21

Yes, yes. I think also it is a cultural thing. Uh here in in Middle Tennessee, maybe in the state, a lot of people, a lot of people speak slower, but versus in Cuba, in the Caribbean, a lot of people speak fast. And so I translate that to English by trying to speak as fast as I speak in Spanish, and then that doesn't uh work out.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

I think I am also a fast speaker, so I have to intentionally remind myself to slow down. And I think it's a little bit about our personalities. We are very, we want to be efficient, we want to just get things done. So to us, like fast walker, fast talker, like, hey, let's just get through this. Yeah. And let's quickly communicate. And you, just like me, when you know what someone's about to say, you're like, okay, cool, let's move on. Let's move on. I've noticed that about you because I'm the same way. And that's where speaking fast can come from. And you're like, okay, let's not waste our time, let's get through this. I agree. But when communicating with clients, we have to be mindful of that and we have to communicate slower.

SPEAKER_00 10:32

Awesome. Uh yeah, good, good question. Good stuff. That was a good intro. So, what do you think is one of the biggest lies in entrepreneurship?

SPEAKER_01 10:42

That working harder is better for your business. I can see that automatically.

SPEAKER_00 10:47

I can see that. Anything else?

SPEAKER_01 10:50

Some of the highest revenue-based businesses are actually like operationally disasters. And we experienced that during our tax season. I mean, we had we had good support, but we didn't have good structure operationally. Yeah. And we were making a great revenue, but we didn't have that structure in place to make the experience for internal team and externally clients to the white glove level that we know it can be.

SPEAKER_00 11:19

For sure, for sure. And and you see that a lot in in startup, and that uh caused them a lot of mistakes.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

You see that a lot in what? In startups?

SPEAKER_00 11:31

Yeah, in startups. Because, for example, uh, you see a lot of companies that they grow really fast and they grow their marketplace. And then once they grow, once they get to the level, is that they start fixing their mistakes.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

And that's one of the like biggest fail reasons of so many businesses is they grow so quickly and then they fail because they they don't they grow too fast to put the right structure and right resources in place and to do the right thing with the money. So that's a really big issue that we commonly see. So I always say, like, for clients who see other people growing faster, I'm like, hey, slow and steady, you know, grow 10% this year, 10% next year. Everyone wants to grow and triple and quadruple, like I do too. But sometimes it makes the most sense to walk and get there and not run. Because when you're walking, you're setting your each lay like level of your foundation, just like building a skyscraper. Each level you have to do the process. Like, I mean, there's concrete rebar, all the things you have to put in place, you're putting in properly rather than building it with sticks all the way up, and then you're having to go back down to each floor and put those cement and the rebar, all of the stuff in, right?

SPEAKER_02 12:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:47

Which can be harder and you're more likely for those sticks to fall down before you get to putting those in place.

SPEAKER_00 12:52

And the foundation is important because you need to be able to continue that growth. And without that foundation and those processes, if you build the bottom floor, then you have to build the foundation of the next floor. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 13:05

So you can't just go from zero, like it, like I said, you're building it with sticks rather than actually putting in the cement, the rebar, all of the other. I'm sure these construction people who are listening, you know better than me all the materials and things that you need, but that's typically how it goes.

SPEAKER_00 13:20

And then like uh something what happens is businesses can fall in the comparison trap and they and they start comparing themselves to a businesses that have been around for like five, ten years longer than them. And I'm like, yeah, that person has spent five, ten years at it, you are only on GR1, G or two. So you gotta be patient and be building uh the right way. And then I've been really impressed that some of the better business uh some of the Coleman's businesses make the most money, like the business as well. That is not a lot of chaos going on because of processes, and that's how you get to the enterprise level.

SPEAKER_01 14:03

So the inner go the soul preneur level is where the chaos, it's complete chaos. You never know who's doing what, when, where, why. Yeah, you never know what your day is gonna look like. So the transition during this six series six episode series is you're going from that soulpreneur to an actual small business to like continuing going. And and when you hit that enterprise level, it's very smooth and calm.

SPEAKER_02 14:31

Yes, it is. That's the goal. And that is the goal.

SPEAKER_01 14:35

Let's get into our first segment there where we're we're going to talk about stop trading your time for money.

SPEAKER_00 14:42

Yeah, I guess that makes sense, you know.

SPEAKER_01 14:44

So your business should not fully depend on you to be there every day.

SPEAKER_00 14:49

That's good stuff. Uh I'm going to tell you something really controversial.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

Oh, I'm shocked.

SPEAKER_00 14:56

Really? So a lot of businesses owners don't actually own businesses, they own stressful jobs with branding. What do you think about it?

SPEAKER_01 15:08

So you're saying you're saying a lot of business owners don't own a business, they own a stressful job with branding.

SPEAKER_00 15:15

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 15:16

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:17

And they have a lot of bosses too, uh asking them how to do staff, chasing, chasing them out.

SPEAKER_01 15:24

So then let's talk about that. So then people who have put themselves in that role, their bosses are their clients, right? Their bosses are their accounts payable, right? Yeah. The people who are are look their software companies they have to pay, or maybe it's the um the various like cost of goods companies they have to pay, things like that.

SPEAKER_00 15:45

Yeah, and you know why you're seeing them down.

SPEAKER_01 15:47

Yeah, we know why you want to hear it.

SPEAKER_00 15:49

Because they are usually the first line to talk to the customer. You know, they are the ones doing everything because they haven't grown.

unknown 15:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:59

They'll keep trading time for money and they are not really busy.

SPEAKER_01 16:02

So how are we how are we doing in our business in regards to that?

SPEAKER_00 16:08

Uh we are doing pretty good actually. Uh we first of all, we have a business phone number. Uh a mistake we made early on is that we gave our personal phone number to every client. And then cla and then your personal phone number, you know, you have a lot of stuff going on in there, so it's really hard to give the best customer experience. So now we have a business phone number, we have a receptionist, we have people that can can take care of those questions because usually whenever you are the first line of defense, you are asking questions that is not worth your time to reply because your time is better spent somewhere else. And clients understand that, you know, clients understand, yeah, I'm only calling you because I need you to send me a copy of this. You know, they don't want you to do it, but you are the only one, you have trained them that you are the only one that can give you that. So the easiest thing to get out of that way is just by getting a receptionist or just getting an assistant, an admin person.

SPEAKER_01 17:23

And I think training your clients and customers from the get-go. And then if if you were like us and you right away did not train them appropriately, and the reason why is because one, like we wanted low cost, so we kept our phone easy access. So we had our phone numbers, right? And now that we're so busy and we have other things going on, it's not the most efficient way for our customers or clients to contact us. And a lot of times when they do, we don't see it or things don't get done because we're thinking, oh, we'll look at it later. And then we forget. If it goes to our email or if they call our business number, then our team take takes it over. It's their job. And then they follow through and make sure it's done, right? And the way the transition that, so if you did like what what we did, it started with your personal phone and that you were the person, you just have to retrain your clients. And so when they will text you or call you, say, hey, thank you for reaching out. Future in the future, will you please use these contact methods to get a quick and efficient response? This this person will take care of this for you. I am not the best contact for that anymore. So you have to make sure that you're communicating because most mistakes and most bad feelings, I think, come from poor communication or lack thereof communication, right?

SPEAKER_00 18:39

For sure.

SPEAKER_01 18:40

And we've learned that between us, we've learned it between clients, we've learned it between new clients, we've learned it between employees, etc. So my main advice for anyone building a business, soulpreneur to enterprise is communication. Over-communicate and directly communicate.

SPEAKER_00 18:57

Yes, for sure. And I want to double down in that. Overcommunicate and directly communicate. At the beginning, you don't want to tell people the truth, you know, straightforward. But that is the best thing you can do for them. Be really straightforward with your communication, especially with the client and the service you offer. Yes, like this is going to cost this, and this is what it's going to cost. And I'm not going to do it for anything less than this because I'm not going to be able to give you the best job. And that is the importance of communication. And I feel once you communicate to the client, client will understand that. Also, I guess something that happened to me or that used to happen to me is this constant availability culture. And you know, I wanted to I wanted to be able to reply to my emails at 5 a.m. or to reply to my text at 10 p.m. or during the weekend. But then I realized that wasn't scalable. That wasn't scared.

SPEAKER_01 20:01

And as a new business owner, it set it helps you gain business and keep business when you are responsive, but you're right, it's not scalable and not sustainable.

SPEAKER_00 20:11

Yeah. How do you train people? How do you train clients or people like, hey, don't reach out to me on the weekend? Or you think that is just that is just in our common sense. It also depends on the line of business because right now I'm thinking of real estate agents and yeah, real estate agents, they want you to reach out on the weekends.

SPEAKER_01 20:30

So I think it depends on the industry. And I think it also depends on the specific person, right? So some people they want to work on weekends. And I think if that's okay, then that's their business model. That's fine. But I do think that you have to set boundaries and expectations early on. Whether that be, hey, I work Tuesday through Sunday or Tuesday or Wednesday through Sunday, right? If you're a real estate agent. And you take like Monday Tuesday off, whatever it is, right? Yeah. I think setting those boundaries and expectations right away, or at least communicating to your clients, hey, I'm not working today. It's a it's a Monday, it's a Sunday, but let's revisit this tomorrow. Let's revisit this on these days when I'm working.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

I agree. You know, I was talking to somebody the other day, and he gave me good advice. Uh his take was about being responsive always. And he and he's actually pretty responsive. You send him an email and he will get back to you within like five minutes.

SPEAKER_01 21:29

Does he have an assistant who helps with that?

SPEAKER_00 21:31

Himself.

SPEAKER_01 21:31

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 21:32

He's he's a lawyer, he does his email, but then what he said that uh that whenever he gets something that he needs to work on, I say, hey, I got this request, I hope to get it done by next Friday. But I love how he said, I hope to get it done. Because that sets some kind of expectation, and that instead of something I Do I say I will get it done by next Friday? Well, what do you think about that? I hope versus I will just communicate.

SPEAKER_01 22:07

Because then that puts a level of, hey, it like I can't if if we don't get it done, maybe it's because we missed this paperwork, or like you didn't send us this paperwork, or we had we lacked this clarity. Yeah. Or maybe we had a medical emergency.

SPEAKER_00 22:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:24

So it gives you that leeway to say, hey, I hope to have this done Friday for you.

SPEAKER_00 22:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:29

I like the verbiage, and I think that should be our verbiage. Thank you, Jet Friend.

SPEAKER_00 22:36

I'm like, that's pretty smart, actually. I love how that sounds. I hope, but we are.

SPEAKER_01 22:40

Lawyers are so good with their words.

SPEAKER_00 22:43

Really?

SPEAKER_01 22:44

How do they learn that? They argue for a living. They learn it in law school.

SPEAKER_00 22:49

Interesting. Is there is there a way I can learn how to communicate like a lawyer? Is there a book I can read?

SPEAKER_01 22:56

I'm pretty sure there's a book called How to Communicate Like a Lawyer.

SPEAKER_00 22:59

Really?

SPEAKER_01 23:00

I'm pretty sure there is.

SPEAKER_00 23:01

I'm looking it up on the show. Yeah, look it up and let me know because I'm pretty sure.

SPEAKER_01 23:05

While you're looking that up, we can talk. Let's stay in this area where we're talking about and stop trading your time for money.

SPEAKER_02 23:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:13

So a couple of another item to discuss here is the nobody can do it like me. And we've briefly touched on this in the series previously, but that's another area where you're trading time for money again. You have to be able to delegate, train appropriately and delegate, review, and then train on any mistakes.

SPEAKER_00 23:34

Yes. And that's something I'm working on now implementing training material and training program for every position I'm bringing in. And advice I would tell people is this before you bring somebody, make sure you document, you document what you want that person to do, and you make videos of yourself doing it. We use Loom Video. We also use Scribe to create SOP. Because that is going to make the onboarding of that person really easy and that is going to save time. Absolutely. For sure.

SPEAKER_01 24:13

And I know many of you are probably thinking, like, oh, so I have to dedicate time to document and do all of this, which is seems tedious and annoying. But the thing is, if you document it while you're doing it, so say like something comes up and you have to do this quick project, or you have to do like a quick journal entry or something like that for accounting purposes, you go in and you record yourself doing it on the Loom, or if it's something more like physical that you're doing at your job place, write a note, like a sticky note, whatever you have, write it down, and then you can put it in a Word document later, a PDF, some kind of file to have on hand.

SPEAKER_00 24:54

Yes, for sure. For sure. So I actually found the book and I and I'm adding it to my bookie list. I'll probably read it.

SPEAKER_01 25:02

Send it to me too.

SPEAKER_00 25:03

Okay, perfect.

SPEAKER_01 25:04

Uh so but but it's called How to Communicate Like a Lawyer, right?

SPEAKER_00 25:07

No, that is the lawyer's communication bible, master legal speaking, grinding, and digital skill.

SPEAKER_01 25:13

Okay, all of those are gonna be more legal based.

SPEAKER_00 25:15

And then there is this one called At least on Amazon. Are you sure?

SPEAKER_01 25:20

Are you sure it does not communicate like a lawyer?

SPEAKER_00 25:22

Communicate like a top legal professional in the digital age, speak like a lawyer, grind like a lawyer. Okay. That's a little bit of a interesting. I don't have anything else. Yeah, think like a lawyer. Oh, how to speak and grind like a lawyer.

SPEAKER_01 25:38

Okay, preview that and see if it's more legal jargon or not.

SPEAKER_00 25:41

Okay, I would do that. And then usually what happens, you know, whenever you are like, man, I uh nobody can do it like me. You know, what happened is that the business gets addicted to the owner. And then the pressure becomes too much on the owner that the owners just get burned out. Yeah. And I went through a little bit of that uh happening. How long do you think it takes for an owner to really get burned out and say, hey, this is enough? Like I have to change something.

SPEAKER_01 26:12

I think it depends on what else they have going on in their life, like if they have children and things like that too. Because I think that burnout is a little faster in that realm.

SPEAKER_00 26:23

I was single and I burned out in a year.

SPEAKER_01 26:25

Yeah. And I and I think, yeah, I think it also is like how many days a week are you working and boundaries. Did you set a boundary? You didn't. And like, and I think it depends on the people, right? Like if they didn't set boundaries right away, like any at all. Yeah. Then I think burnout is inevitable faster. But I think if they put boundaries in place with their clients and with their team, if they have a team, and say, hey, these are the days I'm communicating with you, these are the days things are happening.

SPEAKER_00 26:53

For sure.

SPEAKER_01 26:54

I think that will prolong burnout.

SPEAKER_00 26:56

For sure. I completely agree with you on that. Yeah. And then uh whenever you're feeling burnt out, just realize it, step out and make a decision, you know, take a break and get back to it. Because burnout is not for a long time. You just need to get out of the system for a week, for two weeks, and then you just you just reconnect to it.

SPEAKER_01 27:20

And owner's retreat helps with that too.

SPEAKER_00 27:22

It did actually. That was the solution.

SPEAKER_01 27:24

And I feel like an owner's retreat, I mean, one, it's a tax write-off. And two, another benefit of that, like not only do you get the benefit of like stepping out of your business and working on things, but then you also see how the business functions or what breaks while you're unavailable.

SPEAKER_00 27:42

For sure. For sure. So um yes, you are completely.

SPEAKER_01 27:48

And I I would recommend for those who have more physical or more in-person intensive businesses, I would say go on like a three-day or a two-day owner's retreat first. That way you're not interrupting too long of a period, and then you can see, okay, these are the areas that broke. These are the things that are not working when I'm when I'm not there. And then you can revamp, fix, and continue to scale.

SPEAKER_00 28:15

I think we did a pretty good job in that. I think did anything broke? Nothing, right? Thank you. We had a great operation team, our operational team, our while staff.

SPEAKER_01 28:27

Uh and we communicated with the clients who we communicate with more frequently so they were aware, hey, we're going to be less available during that time.

SPEAKER_00 28:39

So yeah, that that went really well. I think we had the best support.

SPEAKER_01 28:43

And then another thing, I mean, we definitely had great support, but another thing that helped, I think, transition to that phase is that we were already taking Thursdays as business development days. So that there was a day a week already where the business had to rely on everyone but us.

SPEAKER_00 29:02

Uh, for sure. You know, and that is a lie you need to business owners need to, you know, dismantle that lie and understand that to grow, you have to change that, that ad mentality, uh, for sure. So, what do you think about this now with burning out and you know, you are working trading time for money and all of that. And business owner, what do you think about this we all flex online right now where people are working 18 hours days?

SPEAKER_01 29:34

Where people are trying to flex and say they work 18-hour days, or like say, oh, I I work this is how many hours I work for my business, and saying it's more, and just thinking that that's a cool thing. Is that what you're saying? To me, like, okay, like in my opinion, and from the experience that I have looking at all of these other businesses, all it tells me is that you have terrible systems in place, right? So some of the most successful business owners, and when I say successful, I mean financially, but also time-wise, most of us get into business because we want to control our time and our lives, right? And we want to make money.

SPEAKER_02 30:10

I agree.

SPEAKER_01 30:12

So that's kind of what success looks like to me. So when I say a successful business owner, that's what I mean. So they're not tied down. The ones who I know and who I've seen, they have complete control over their schedule.

SPEAKER_02 30:24

For sure.

SPEAKER_01 30:24

So what what I mean by that is if one day they wanted to take their kids voting, they can. Or if there's a trade show across the country that would help grow their business or help give them insight on things or some kind of convention, they can step out and go for a week without interruptions.

SPEAKER_00 30:41

Yeah, for sure. Yeah, and in my personal experience with clients, the worthiest founders, the most successful business owners, I know they also have the calmest schedule and they are able to take a month off. They are able to take any day off. Now they have a bigger team, they have been able to delegate and create an enterprise. And they have put their time, they have put the three, five years, their 10 years on it, but they have successfully done it. And you know, and now they can enjoy this time freedom that the business can give them. However, doesn't matter how much time freedom you have, the stress of having of being a business owner is never gonna waive. That is stressful.

SPEAKER_01 31:31

Because you have that responsibility, yeah. And typically, the personality of a business owner is someone who takes over responsibility for their actions and their people, right? So interesting. I think you're right on that. So then let's talk about this. So what what we're saying ultimately is that busy does not equal valuable.

SPEAKER_00 31:54

Yes. Yes, for sure. Uh hostile culture is only profitable for influencer trying to sell it, but not for operators.

SPEAKER_01 32:04

So if you're so if your entire identity is I'm slammed, then your operation sucks. Yes. Pretty much, right?

SPEAKER_00 32:12

By the way, uh, you know something interesting about that? Uh so I have been trying to figure out how to manage the stress of running a business better. And, you know, and in the owner's retreat, uh one of the staff I took out over it, you know, because of you, you gave me that advice too. It's like, hey, you need to figure out how to manage the stress better. You need to find a hobby. So I have been, I I have decided this hobby is going to be the gym. It's the easiest thing to do. I want to start going in the morning and all of that fun stuff. And funny enough, I was talking also to my lawyer friend, and this guy he goes to the gym at 8.30, a.m. in the morning. And then says, yeah, he goes to the gym, like he wakes up, he walks from home, he goes to the gym at 8.30, then he comes back, he takes a shower, then he goes to the office and gets to the office around 10. And then he has kids, so he comes back at 4 p.m., you know, to have his kids, and then he logs in again for a little for a little bit around 7 p.m., 9 p.m. And I told him, hey, is that one hour at the gym that I'm going to be spending every day worth it? Like, is that worth it? Like, versus me going to the office for one hour. And the first thing he said to me was, okay, how many hours you say you work? I'm like, no, I'm usually in the office for 12 hours. Like, I'm usually doing something from like 7 a.m. to to like 7 p.m. And he and he said to me, like, yeah, you probably you're probably lying to me. Like, you probably are not doing something for 12 hours. You are not being productive for 12 hours. And I'm like, that's probably right. I don't know, you know, like now thinking about it, like, yeah, that that makes sense, you know. Oh, I'm doing stuff, but it's not the most important thing. Or it's a staff. He said, hey, yeah, like you are you are answering email, or you are replying to email, or you're having a meeting or something, you can have that during the gym. You know, you are you are at the gym, you can reply to email between sets, you can take a phone call at the gym while you are working out.

SPEAKER_01 34:25

I took a new client call in the sauna one time.

SPEAKER_00 34:27

Yeah, you know, and so I'm like, that's pretty good. So he actually really confronted me on that. I'm like, he's probably right. And he said, yes, hey, long time.

SPEAKER_01 34:37

That's the perk perk of being a business owner. You can do business wherever you want.

SPEAKER_00 34:40

That's a good point.

SPEAKER_01 34:41

Especially an hour line of work.

SPEAKER_00 34:43

Yeah, maybe now, and now that mainly we're managing people, uh I'm like, yeah, you know, it's mainly meetings, phone calls, emails, replying to a team.

SPEAKER_01 34:54

I'm gonna check up on you and make sure you're doing that. An hour in the gym.

SPEAKER_00 34:58

I'll probably do 45 minutes. The thing with me is that at the fact I go to the gym, I drive 15 minutes.

SPEAKER_01 35:05

Why don't you find a gym more local?

SPEAKER_00 35:07

Closer to you, closer to the only close, they only close so they have a sauna.

SPEAKER_01 35:15

I would look for a gym with the sauna because for the for me, I found the efficiency level where it's maximum benefit in the sauna before it gets like to dehydration is 15 to 20 minutes. So 15 minutes in the sauna, and I'm literally emails. I can bring my laptop too sometimes. Oh really? Yeah, and like usually it's on my phone. I need that out. I'll be eat doing my emails and like reviewing stuff that my assistant has sent to other people so I'm aware if they call me or if something happens. And I took an air call. We we got a business phone call. I took it, no one was in there, so I took a call. Yeah, it was like at lunchtime or something.

SPEAKER_00 35:51

I want to figure that out. I want to figure that out, and then it's also everything is about priorities. Priorities is like, is your personal health more important than the business, or is the business more important than that? The way I was looking at it, I'm like, man, I decided this the first three years, I'm going to go all in into the business. And then after these three years, yeah, I will worry about the workout. I'm going to go.

SPEAKER_01 36:14

Yeah, but if you have a heart attack or you have some like life altering.

SPEAKER_00 36:18

So there's nothing wrong with that.

SPEAKER_01 36:20

But some life-altering thing, the business then suffers, though. Yeah. Uh Jet wanted us to go to heaven last night. Last last night. Hey, last night we went to a a client event and we drove we drove the Porsche.

SPEAKER_00 36:38

You've got Porsche for real.

SPEAKER_01 36:40

And Jet said, How fast can this thing go? He wanted me to go fast. He said, Maybe we'll go to heaven.

SPEAKER_00 36:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:47

What kind of business partner is that?

SPEAKER_00 36:49

It's probably a better place than here though.

SPEAKER_01 36:52

We will get there when it's our time.

SPEAKER_00 36:55

Yeah. As long as you have Jesus in your heart.

SPEAKER_01 36:58

Yes, that is true.

SPEAKER_00 36:59

Yeah, as long as you're a Christian. You believe Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Nobody goes to heaven except through him.

SPEAKER_01 37:07

Are we about to save people on this podcast right now?

SPEAKER_00 37:09

Let's go for it. So Okay.

SPEAKER_01 37:12

I like I like where this is going. Life changing in a different way than we meant originally.

SPEAKER_00 37:17

But for sure. Yeah. No, but no, uh yeah, for real. Uh I like heaven.

SPEAKER_01 37:24

Yeah. It's supposed to be a magical place. But okay, let's let's pivot and talk about the street. Yeah?

SPEAKER_00 37:30

You'll be worshiping with everybody else, the guy. Can you mind that? Can you buy it? Can you mind you spend your whole day worshiping Jesus? Worshiping Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 37:41

I mean, I mean, yeah, because you don't have to work, right? Like you don't have to go through like the Yeah. You don't have to pay. You don't have to do the daily stuff.

SPEAKER_00 37:50

So I guess you're saying that if I cannot go to work out for an hour and then go back home and take a shower. Uh but the thing is you can take a shower at the gym.

SPEAKER_01 38:00

So the thing that I no, no, you get flip-flops. So I have a gym bag in my car. You saw the bag in my car yesterday.

SPEAKER_00 38:05

I feel like gym gym showers are a mess, are nasty.

SPEAKER_01 38:08

They mine are decent, and but you have gym flip-flops that you wear in the shower.

SPEAKER_00 38:13

I need to do it.

SPEAKER_01 38:14

But I have a gym bag and that that keeps me efficient, so I can which I work for my house still, but then I just pop it, do it quickly. Yeah. And then I can like quickly just do my stuff.

SPEAKER_00 38:23

Yeah. I need to and I need to understand.

SPEAKER_01 38:25

I try to go either like 5 a.m. or at like lunch lunch time.

SPEAKER_00 38:29

I should do the 4 a.m. club. The 4 a.m.

SPEAKER_01 38:33

club. Every now and again I'll just go at like 7 p.m. if I if we had like if I knew I have a lot going on, a lot of meetings. Because I like to mentally prepare myself for the meeting.

SPEAKER_00 38:43

So but why do you go at 5 a.m. and not at 8 30 a.m.? Kimma, you dig you going to you much at 8:30 a.m. 8:30.

SPEAKER_01 38:51

8:30 seems crazy. I mean, like, I would love to do that. I think that's great.

SPEAKER_00 38:54

Who knows?

SPEAKER_01 38:55

But at 8:30, I'm like business, I'm like white glove mode. So I'm usually in meetings or I'm like getting ready for a meeting.

SPEAKER_00 39:01

And are they are there important meetings though?

SPEAKER_01 39:04

I mean, I'm going to have less now that we have accounting supervisors.

SPEAKER_00 39:09

Yeah. They said the mobile has to 8 30 to go to the gym. That's that's another level.

SPEAKER_01 39:17

8 30 at the gym might be good networking because who else can go to 8 30 at the gym? Business owners, right? Successful ones.

SPEAKER_00 39:24

That's a good point, no, for sure. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 39:27

Or people who work nice.

SPEAKER_00 39:28

Awesome. Uh what else?

SPEAKER_01 39:30

Stuff that you like when you see business owners online, usually, right?

SPEAKER_00 39:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:35

I feel like that business like influencers, um, etc., those people, they like glorify like the exhausted business owner, right?

SPEAKER_00 39:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:48

Something interesting that you see though online is all of these like business in like influencers, right? They're selling like exhausted business owner. They're selling exhaustion, exhausted ambition. Yeah. I feel like a lot of young entrepreneurs, and those are people who like should be watching this podcast. Yes. I feel like a lot of young entrepreneurs are buying into that, and they're just following it. So they're they're thinking, okay, I need to be working 12 hour days, 18-hour days, not prioritizing eating a balanced meal, not prioritizing going to the gym.

SPEAKER_02 40:26

That's comparable. Right.

SPEAKER_01 40:27

And a lot of times that helps you balance and become, I think, a better business owner mentally.

SPEAKER_00 40:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:34

And I think physical health I think has a lot to do with mental health too.

SPEAKER_00 40:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:39

I think they go hand in hand. We were just talking about that. Yeah. Um, it helps your emotions not get involved too much in business. Yeah. Which there has to be that separation.

SPEAKER_00 40:48

Yeah. Yeah. And I feel like uh man, I would tell you this young people have it tough. 13 years old to like 21 years old. People that are on social media and are trying to learn business from social media. Because that's not a word.

SPEAKER_01 41:07

Bad advice. Yeah. Well, and the thing is, like, I would encourage people who are young entrepreneurs, and honestly, I would call young entrepreneurs anyone under 35.

SPEAKER_00 41:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:16

So the average age age of an entrepreneur, a successful one, is 54.

SPEAKER_00 41:20

Yes. Man, I love uh I I know you love Gary V. Gary V. Gary V. And you love this video while they say, like, you are only like 29 years old, you are so young. You can fail so many times. You're only 18. Like, because supposedly Gary V, he's started, he was working for his dad until 33, and he teaches this like self-love, this patience, this learning opportunity. And I completely agree with that. Like, if you some young people are going to listen to somebody listen to uh Gary B because kind of his mentality about young and like man, you are too young, you can make mistakes, you can make failures, uh, that works a lot.

SPEAKER_01 42:01

So no, but what I was saying was Yeah, but what I was saying was I think instead of just fall blindly following these influencers or random people you see online, especially with some tax strategy, crazy stuff, research and see, okay, did have they owned or grew or started successful businesses? Are they an actual tax professional? And a lot of these things are so broad. I always recommend professionals because of how broad they are. Everyone in every business and industry is so unique.

SPEAKER_02 42:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:32

Um, okay, let's go back, let's get back on topic and talk about our next thing, number two, which is packaging and pricing strategy and the importance of that and using that for scalability to go from soulpreneur to enterprise.

SPEAKER_00 42:48

Yeah. So what what do you think? Uh what do you like, you know, that is our and what what do you think about it?

SPEAKER_01 42:55

How do you think people So one of the biggest reasons that businesses stay small is because they sell everything to everyone, and we j we're we were just experiencing this right now. Yes. Um, the transition from that to becoming more focused on what you're good at, what you enjoy doing, etc. So I gave you three points earlier, right before the podcast. They're like fleeting me right now, but they were really good points where I discussed and said, hey, what we need to focus on doing instead of selling everything to everyone, we need to say, okay, what are we good at doing? What do we hate doing? And what are we not good at? The things that we haven't perfected and we're not good at, we need to let go and we can try to capitalize and learn and grow on those later. Yeah. The things we don't like doing, like us and our team and things that just don't that are clunky and don't flow well, they're they're not really in our wheelhouse anyway. The extra things that we used to grab onto just to grow the business, we have to stop doing those. And then we focus. Focus and really hone in on the things that we are good at and that we're in we enjoy doing and that are in line with our business model. So that's something, the big transition that we are doing actively right now in our business. And that gets you to that next level. So what happens is as a soulpreneur, it's good to say yes. Saying yes gets you like off your feet faster. It helps you like actually build and start a momentum for your business, saying yes and taking on every job, every client. But there's a certain point to where maybe you have 50 clients in different industries and different segments who are all asking for these small little things. At that point, you probably don't have the capacity for yourself or your team to continue that. So you have to start to niche down and say, okay, here's our core services, here's our core ideal clients. And you start going into the enterprise level once you get those. So the enterprise level, eventually you'll be able to offer all of those things if you so choose to, right?

SPEAKER_02 45:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:03

But you have to get to that level. So then when we're talking about pricing, there's so many different aspects to pricing, and it all depends on what your business is, right? And a lot of times at this point, when you're ready to really do a big re-evaluation and deep dive in your pricing, it's usually when you're when you've grown enough to go from solepreneur, which if you haven't, I'd still I honestly I think every year there should be a pricing analysis done for sure on your business. And a lot of businesses actually do that.

SPEAKER_02 45:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:34

Um, so I recommend that every single year. And I'm happy to chat offline to anyone who's interested on how you could go about that or if we could help you.

SPEAKER_02 45:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:44

Um, but let's talk about that. So first you want to talk about the product, right? So if your product or your service, you want to make a list of all the things that you provide.

SPEAKER_02 45:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:53

And when you're reviewing that list, go ahead and say, hey, here's the things that we're not good at. We're not experts in these things. Let's review and see how much money you've actually made from them.

SPEAKER_02 46:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:04

And then when you do that, and you're maybe maybe you say, okay, we made five grand from it, but did you actually make that, or was that top line revenue? Was that profit? How much time did it take you to do that job? Because if it's stuff that you don't like or that you're not as familiar with, you probably had to spend a lot of time on education or training, or a lot of time honestly like twiddling your thumbs because you didn't want to do it.

SPEAKER_00 46:28

No, for sure. So that happens that that time happens a lot.

SPEAKER_01 46:31

Exactly. So that time could have been better used on doing some of the other services or products that you offer that you enjoy doing and that you're good at doing.

SPEAKER_00 46:39

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 46:40

So I think that's step one in your in reviewing your pricing. Number two is do you have tiered pricing? Do you have flat rate pricing? Review and understand that. And then a little bit of market research never hurts to see okay, what are your competitors doing? What's their pricing look like? But I would say I wouldn't base your pricing entirely off your competitors. And then beyond that, let's talk about billable hourly rates. So, this is something that you brought up to me about us doing more of that. And I agree. Um, we've done that work before, and now we're going to transition back to doing more of that work. It's good for the business, it's also good for the client because we're going to produce higher quality and more focused work for them because we're getting it's an hourly rate, right?

SPEAKER_02 47:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:28

I mean, it sounds selfish, but that's what it is, to be honest. And then when you're doing that, you're selling outcomes instead of tasks.

SPEAKER_02 47:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:36

Right. So then you're saying, hey, I'm going to give you the best outcome instead of saying, hey, give, you know, it every month pay me. I mean, which is still good for some of the services we offer, like monthly accounting. It's still good to say, okay, if your package is a thousand a month, every month this is what it's going to be.

SPEAKER_00 47:52

Well, what is your most controversial take on pricing?

SPEAKER_01 47:57

Whew. I'm going to say this, and it's the cheapest clients are usually the most difficult.

SPEAKER_00 48:03

I get that. The people paying the list often require the most emotional energy, the most work, and they don't and they treat you like that because they don't know, they don't understand the value you are bringing to them, and also they don't see the value. They can see they can get the same service everywhere else. You know?

SPEAKER_01 48:23

Yeah, exactly. That's exactly it.

SPEAKER_00 48:25

So should uh to close to close this podcast up, should should everyone scale?

SPEAKER_01 48:31

No, absolutely not. And I've said this before.

SPEAKER_00 48:34

For sure.

SPEAKER_01 48:35

I've said it before. I'm like, I think everyone has their own goals, and everyone should have the freedom to choose how they want to see their business. So if they want to stay a soulpreneur and work a job, pretty much put their pigeonhole themselves to a job, if that's their goal and they enjoy doing that, then do it. Yeah. But if they want to scale and bec build an enterprise or build a small business, then I say do that as well.

SPEAKER_00 49:00

I agree. I agree for sure.

SPEAKER_01 49:01

But you have to do it has taste it takes a certain mentality. Oh. And you have to understand the steps to get there to do it properly.

SPEAKER_00 49:09

Yeah. Hey, these this pad became went longer than what we thought. So we're probably going to have a part two to this conversation. So that might be the next one.

SPEAKER_01 49:20

Okay. Yeah, we'll we can continue pricing on the next one.

SPEAKER_00 49:25

That works. Do you want to close this out?

SPEAKER_01 49:27

Basically, if your business depends completely on you, yeah, uh then you don't have a business. You definitely don't. Right? You have no asset.

SPEAKER_00 49:37

Yeah. Awesome, guys. See you in the next one. All right. That's good. Hey, thank you. Thank you for watching. Please leave your comments, subscribe, and we always appreciate the support. Thank you guys. Bye bye.