ISI Brotherhood Podcast

94. 3 Reasons You Can't Get to the Next Step in Your Business

• Aaron Walker & Kevin Wallenbeck

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"If I don’t have the right resources and the right people around me, I tend to start making decisions that are outside the scope of my knowledge base… that gets really risky." 

There's always a chance you might get stuck, no matter where you are in your business. You can get stuck when you're starting off, you can get stuck with team members that just won't move the needle, and you can get stuck when you've arrived at the view from the top.

What do we do when we don't know what to do next? Big A and Wally both expose their own difficulties when trudging through unknown waters of their business and how they were able to keep moving forward. 

Key Takeaways: 

  • 3 reasons you're stuck and how to get unstuck
  • How do you deal with fear of failure? Could this be holding you back? 
  • What Harry Potter has to do with business
  • How risk plays a part in moving forward with business decisions

This episode is packed with actionable advice and inspiring stories to help you conquer your business growth challenges.

Iron Sharpens Iron Community: https://go.viewfromthetop.com/community
LinkedIn Group: https://www.viewfromthetop.com/group

If you want to hear more speakers like this every month and be with the guys on the call, join the Iron Sharpens Iron Community today: https://www.isibrotherhood.com/isi-community

Connect with Big A:
View From The Top Website: https://isibrotherhood.com
The ISI Newsletter: https://www.isibrotherhood.com/newsletter
Big A’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronwalkerviewfromthetop/

Speaker 1:

Hey everybody, welcome back to View From the Top podcast, where we help growth-minded men who desire momentum in their business, their family and their finances get through the valleys and up the mountain to their very own view from the top.

Speaker 1:

Hey, this past week I was on an Iron Sharpens Iron Community Roundtable call.

Speaker 1:

It's a once a month call where a seasoned business leader leans into a topic for about 40 minutes and then they break out into deep dive and smaller mastermind groups for about 30 minutes. Well, this past week I was on one of these and Jordan Hammond he's one of those seasoned entrepreneurs I was talking about. He leaned into achieving at both work and home I was talking about. He leaned into achieving at both work and home and then in just my own breakout group that I was in of six guys, we got into one of the guys' businesses challenges that he was having and it was around getting to the next step, which is what we're going to talk about today, and he started to see some limiting beliefs that he's had. It was really, really amazing to watch. So if you want to be connected and engaged with a growing group of growth-minded Christian businessmen and leaders, go check out viewfromthetopcom slash community and see for yourself. All right, without further ado, let's get the big bald guy in here into the studio. Welcome.

Speaker 2:

Big A, what Big bald guy. Let me see this Big a what big bald guy. What is this big big a will suffice. I don't know about big bald guy.

Speaker 1:

Well, I thought that was a sign of wisdom I.

Speaker 2:

I don't know if I had hair gray hair really gray, but since I have no hair, there's no gray and so the bible talk about gray hair being wisdom and like you know if you shave it all off isn't that more wisdom? I don't know you're not going to get out of this with trumping me spiritually, so you're not well, I thought, I thought I'd try hey, you know you just mentioned, uh, rock star jordan hammond.

Speaker 2:

Jordan's our canadian brother. Uh, what a great guy, man, and what a great job he did on the round table. I mean, jordan's been a real inspiration to so many guys, grown a very successful company and he is leaning into his family and I mean he is implementing strategies in his family. It's incredible. I couldn't help but say a little more about your opening, but we're so gifted with people like Jordan in our mastermind group and it just really, really makes me excited.

Speaker 1:

I didn't say this before, but that talk that he gave is recorded in the community. So if you're listening today and you're like, hey, I'd like to listen to what Jordan had to say, go to that community page vfromthetopcom slash community, check that out and the recording's in there you can listen to that. It's pretty cool, yeah it's solid gold too.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, go do that, Wally. I'm excited to talk about our topic today's three of the reasons you can't really get where you want to go. And I started thinking about all the coaching clients that I've got and all the mastermind members, and I really see on a regular basis businessmen that are wanting to grow their business, but they're really unsure of the next right step and all of us kind of get stuck. Sometimes we just feel mired up in the mud. Sometimes You're like man, I need to get traction, I want to go. They've really got great ideas, but all the pieces are not in alignment. And they come to that realization and I think oftentimes small businesses are limited with many things, but some of it is their talent pool, Some of it's their resources and they just need a little guidance. They just need people to get around them, to help them to understand how they can take that next step.

Speaker 2:

Well, sometimes I think the fear of failure I see that more than anything paralyzes us and we've got to have some emotional support. You're like man, I've got to work through this, because this fear of failure is really paralyzing me, and if any of this sounds familiar to those that are listening. Today I want you to stick around a little bit. Wally and I are going to share a few tips that, hopefully, are going to get you reoriented and on a new pathway.

Speaker 1:

Man, that's a good word. Last week we talked about I think it was last week we talked about what is the definition of business success. And I was looking through the notes today and I'm going, man, like this gets a little, this gets practical on a few of those things we talked about last week that we didn't have time to cover. So I'm excited about diving into this.

Speaker 2:

Well, you ever felt stuck. Have you done that in your business, or have you felt stuck this week?

Speaker 1:

I guess I should say Way more often than I should.

Speaker 2:

It's not ever. It's like what is your first go-to? Like I hadn't really planned on us thinking about this or talking about it and while you think, I'll answer my own question to give you a minute to think about this. So I was in a really bad spot a couple of years ago. I mean, I really was stuck and I took some time off. Actually I was like man, I got to clear my head. You know, I need a little sabbatical.

Speaker 2:

We had some family challenges going on. One of the members of my family had some health issues and that was really taking all of my bandwidth. And then I was stuck from a business standpoint and, like I'll just be honest with you, I was sad. I mean and that's unusual for me I'm usually amped up pretty good and stay really positive and motivated, but I was really in a bad spot. I was sad. I didn't know which way to go. I was stuck. You know this family situation had really taken it out of me. And so a buddy of mine said are you grateful? I was like what are you saying? Am I grateful? I'm sure I'm grateful. He said you really need to journal things that you're grateful for. And so I thought, yeah, I've tried everything else and nothing's working, so I'm going to try this. So I sat out on my patio and I took a yellow pad. Six pages later six pages of things that I was grateful for got me unstuck. I was like what?

Speaker 2:

in the world. I was so focused on the gap and not focused on the game that I lost my way. And so the thing that kind of a default to me. Now, when I'm feeling low and that's happened numerous times since then it's like what am I grateful for? So for me helping me get unstuck, it's showing a sense of gratitude. What about you?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, we're on the same page. I felt a little stuck this morning while I was journaling and I'm with you. I have guys around me that speak into me, and one of the guys talks about gratitude. You're one of those guys. I'm thankful for that. You remind me of that often, so I did that this morning and it wasn't nine pages, it was literally maybe six pages. Six pages, okay, or whatever Is there a difference?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, there is you sound like me? You're embarrassing me, I know, I know.

Speaker 1:

I'm like, I'm not exaggerating, but it's a lot.

Speaker 2:

How about that?

Speaker 1:

It's a lot, a few things, but those few things that I was grateful for were really meaningful and it was enough to just to help God to use those things. You know. Say what are you grateful for, like? Well, who am I grateful to? That's right, I can be grateful for stuff, but who am I grateful to? I'm grateful for? To God for, for, for what he's allowed in my life, both successes and challenges allowed in my life, both successes and challenges. And then somebody else, I was talking to him a few weeks ago and Mark is his name, and he said I was like man, I, you know, I got the gratitude thing down. They're still missing. He goes. Are you? Are you being physically active on a regular basis?

Speaker 2:

And I was like duh, that was it.

Speaker 1:

So those are the things that helped me get unstuck right Gratitude and physical activity.

Speaker 2:

Hey, I want to give a little shout out to one of our members. Seth Buechle wrote a really good book Gratitude and we're going to have it in the show notes. You can link there and go grab a copy. I don't even know if you know this, wally. He's updating it. He's doing the version 2.0 of that book, and so go ahead and grab the copy now because it's well worth it, and then when he up levels it to the next 2.0, you can go grab a copy of that as well. But it's really good. One of the things that I was thinking about when we were kind of thinking through the things that get people stuck One is the talent pool, or your personal talent. Like, you get stuck because either you don't have the talent pool to pull from or you yourself are stuck. So, wally, when you're thinking about your personal abilities or inabilities like how do you sift through that to understand what your zone of genius might be, what do you do?

Speaker 1:

Over the years it's been different things I think about early on in business. Different things I think about early on in business. You know, there's a lot of guys listening today, right, that are at that startup stage, right, and so they're like they're just doing it, Like not a lot of money, what's going on, you know, not a lot of customers yet they're just they got to do a bunch of stuff and they read who, not how, and it sounds great to them but it's like, wait a second, like I don't have the money to do that today. I'm not going to go into debt for it or whatever, and I just need to figure this out and do this. And so I get that.

Speaker 1:

I respect that. I've been there. Sometimes you're going to feel stuck there, right. You're going to feel like I've got it all and I'm doing it, but as soon as you're able to. And this was something that, uh, very first book, business book I read self improvement books, but the first like practical business book I ever read in the early two thousands was the E-myth, and that book alone was being the first one. Like that was a constraint, complete orchestration by God that that was the first book I read because it really helped lay the good foundation for going forward of, like, how do I systematize things?

Speaker 1:

How do I recognize, get myself out of the way as soon as I can? You know, like if you ask, if you ask, I shouldn't say anyone because I haven't talked to everyone. Most everyone that I've talked to about this and I dare say everyone I've talked to about this, they'll be like if you ask them, what was the who should you have hired first and would you have done it sooner? Everyone says yes, now I know they have the money now. So it like it feels different in that moment. It feels really heavy, like I can't do it. Well, let's push back.

Speaker 2:

I'm going to push back on that for a second before we, because I think this is important Matter of fact as or more important than anything we're going to say here while we're talking about this, and you said early on I get it, you can't afford it, I contend that you can't afford not to do it, and I think you can do it earlier, because once you've got the resources to do it, a lot of the times we're afraid we're already in a place. That's bad.

Speaker 1:

Or we're committed already. Maybe it's we've made commitments financially other places. That's where I think we've got to pay attention.

Speaker 2:

Right is what else can we eliminate, like, are there other things? Can we possibly live on a little less salary? And you said something else. Not for today, I don't want to discuss it, but I'll just mention it. We'll come back and do something later. You said yeah, I get it, you don't want to go in debt, and not many businesses did. I start that I didn't incur some debt early in my career. A matter of fact, there was a point where I owed a lot of money and I'm grateful things went well. If they hadn't, I'd been in really bad shape, but I was willing to take that risk. I don't want to say borrowing is taboo. I think that oftentimes, you know, this would go contrary to my good friend Dave Ramsey. He would say bootstrap, it don't ever go in debt. And I hear that to one regard. But in another regard, if I hadn't have gone in debt early in my career, I wouldn't be where I'm at today.

Speaker 1:

Let me back up and explain what I mean by that. Let me add some context. What I hear often is hey, yeah, I've got. I put 30 grand on a credit card. I'm starting my business, I've been in it six months and I've got 30 grand on a credit card. You know, I'm still.

Speaker 1:

I may have a couple of customers, but I'm still doing my job Right and I'm starting this business. But yeah, I got 30 grand on a credit card. I'm like what is the 30 grand for? And I've been there like I've done this, so I know Sure, sure and and I was like what is the 30 grand for? Well, I needed business cards, I needed this great brochure, I needed this, this, this new laptop, this new setup for a convention that I may never go to. And I needed the slickest website possible out there. So I hired somebody else and so you've got zero to three customers that aren't paying you much and you've got a bunch of debt.

Speaker 1:

Like that is not the. I guarantee you I will email the pod at viewfromthetopcom. You email us and tell us and show me that we're wrong. We'll admit it. But most every time like that's usually not a good recipe. Every time like that's usually not a good recipe the focus your efforts on finding the product market fit. We talked about that last episode, finding where your product fits in the marketplace and go sell the crap out of it. Do that first. Let let the nice website and all that be like a bigger problem later on Right.

Speaker 1:

That's what I mean by not going into debt.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I'm with you there. I agree with that. I agree with that. So some of the things that we've had to do in our lead team and you're kind of in charge of this, you do these things is we do a SWOT analysis, talk through what that is exactly and how anyone can do this. It doesn't have to be official and some like walk us through what a SWOT analysis would look like.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so we're talking about idea, with being stuck with ourselves in terms of our talents, or feeling stuck, or even with a team. You may have a full blown team right now. You may have 50, 100, 200 people on team and you still feel stuck at this season of your business. It doesn't mean that when you're starting off you can feel stuck and believe me, I've been there, I know you have too you can feel stuck when you when the proverbial end of the rainbow has been reached, right?

Speaker 1:

So, yeah, it doesn't every stage along the way you can feel stuck. There's places to be stuck. Yeah for sure, right? And so the SWOT analysis is just a tool. It's identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. And it's just a simple tool. It's a grid you can go out and find it. Just search SWOT on Google and you see a grid you can put on a piece of paper, put it on your whiteboard, whatever you want Simple grid, and it allows you to identify the strengths you have in your business, your weaknesses, the opportunities that you have in your threats, and so that will help you understand, maybe, where you need to have your have resources, abilities and talents that you don't have today. And so, whether that's for yourself or whether that's for your team, you know we look at that as an indicator of like are there additional people, talents that we need to invest in this year, based on what our threats are, based on what our weaknesses are, and even our opportunities, right? So it's a simple tool.

Speaker 2:

You can go search again SWOT, it's very helpful, like we review it all the time and we've been doing this for years.

Speaker 2:

Every quarter we go back and look at that. Sometimes the strengths stay on, Sometimes the weaknesses are taken off, Sometimes the opportunities right. It's like it's a constant and so it just keeps you focused on the things that you can maybe change and eliminate. So it's really good. A lot of the guys that I coach today, some of the mastermind groups that we lead, we talk a lot about vision and goals and oftentimes we see guys come into the mastermind or even the one-on-one coaching that we do you do some one-on-one coaching, I do as well and we talk about their vision and are they in alignment with their employees? Does employees align with the vision and the goals? And they're like, yeah, I think they understand. And we're like, well, no, they can't kind of understand. And they're like, well, I think they understand. And we're like, well, no, they can't kind of understand. And they're like, well, I really don't have a written vision. I'm like, well, then, you don't really have a vision. And they're like, yeah, yeah, I understand, but they kind of know where we're going. And I'm like listen, there's no way that we can operate without a vision, because they have no idea where we're going. And I just want to tell you it even says in scripture the people perish where there is no vision, and so we've got to have leaders, We've got to have people that can cast that vision.

Speaker 2:

Now you're like well, what if I'm not good at that? Well, there's people out there that can help you. Like you know, I often, you know, when I was creating that within my own mind, I could feel it a certain way, but I wasn't even good at articulating it. You and some others have helped me get that out on paper. It's like well, what does that look like exactly? And we hone it. It's a work in progress. It's not something that you can just feel and get up and share. So I would encourage you to understand how you can really align with your company's vision and goals with your entire team. Yeah, that's a good point.

Speaker 1:

You know we think about having the right people. Sometimes it's people we need to hire and so we feel stuck because we don't have the right people. That's one challenge. There's a whole nother challenge side of that where there's guys listening to this call right and listening to this recording or this podcast right now that they they're thinking, man, I've got a team and I've got one or two people. I feel stuck because they're on my team right and so having uh, I laugh I know it's not funny because again I've been there where I have a team member that it's like, oh, you're so, but out you're so, but you're loyal, we're loyal, we're benevolent, we give every opportunity under the sun.

Speaker 1:

And where I failed was I didn't have like an expectation path. So, whether that's, you know, effective performance reviews, what that looks like, you know, some people go crazy. People think performance reviews and they think like what they, you know, had at their first intern corporate job, which was like 25 pages and those are great. They serve a purpose. There's way effective, shorter, small performance reviews. Whether you know, use the get it, want it, capacity to do it method.

Speaker 1:

There's other systems out there that just help you very easily be able to communicate effectively.

Speaker 1:

I've always felt like the best situation and I've been successful in this every time but one.

Speaker 1:

There was one time where I just couldn't get someone for them to see themselves that they weren't the right fit, and I had to intentionally transition them out, give them plenty of runway, help them find another opportunity. But most of the time, if you do this well, they see for themselves because you've put the right boundaries, parameters, conversations in place, versus just hitting your head up against the wall every day, feeling limited and stuck every week and worrying about I've got this person in a customer service role that I know shouldn't be there, but I don't know what else to do, and so I think I don't know what else to do. You know what you have to do, but you think that, and so every time, every week, you're wondering what's the customer going to say now, or what are they going to say to the customer? That's going to be bad, and having the right, just simple, effective performance review systems, processes in place, boundaries, conversations all that will help you work through and get unstuck from that.

Speaker 2:

Another thing that I think is important that our team members that we have, we want to be sure they're desirous of learning and ongoing personal and professional development. No-transcript, wally, you and I want to be a student always. We want to be learning all the time. But we need to convey that to the team that are around us because we want them to desire to be on a continuous learning path. Because, just let's face it, I mean, things change and I'd mess it up if I said it exactly, but I think technology every 10 years it used to double, now it's like every six months or a year. It's crazy how fast things are going now and so things are continuously changing.

Speaker 2:

And so if you're stuck, it could be because there's not a desire within your team to grow personally and professionally, and not only with your team, but you as the leader. You know you're not probably going to lead a team much further than you're willing to go yourself. It's the same way with vulnerability or transparency. If you're not willing to do that yourself, your team is certainly not going to be willing to do that either. So we've got to lead by example. People catch it if you're leading that way. So, yeah, really important that we continue to do that.

Speaker 1:

Another reason why I think guys get stuck not knowing what that, how, that next step in their business is, is that they only know what they know. Has that been your experience? It's been. My experience, like personal experience, is that when I reach a limit of what I know, then I tend to start making if I'm not, if I don't have the right resources and people around me, right, like I tend to start making decisions that are outside the scope of of uh, you know my knowledge base and talk about risk. That gets really risky. People don't realize that that's a risk factor for their business, right, because they're uneducated. And right, knowledge is power to make educated decisions. And so where do I get knowledge? If I don't have it, where do you get a big A?

Speaker 2:

Yeah well, I surround myself with trusted advisors. I'm always putting myself out there and trying to learn more, to read more, to listen to podcasts, to go to conferences, to study more, to ask more questions. I used to talk a lot to be heard, and I've learned over the years that you're far better off asking good questions and so just surrounding yourself. Listen, we're going to jump to another topic in just a minute, but there's one other thing that I want to say. That's really I love how you said it earlier. You helped someone else discover a better role for themselves. I love the diplomacy in that, but the truth is, sometimes there's people that you just need to let them go right.

Speaker 2:

We fight that over and over and over. Cody Foster is a guy I know that lives in Topeka, kansas, owns a very successful company and 400 plus employees, and I've interviewed him a couple of times. They're very, very successful. I think they did $8 to $12 billion in revenue last year. And I said, cody, what is the number one thing you would do faster if you had it to go over 23-year company? He said I would get rid of problem people faster. I mean, he never blinked, he never hesitated in saying that sometimes you're doing your whole team a disservice, you're doing your industry a disservice, you're doing that person a disservice by not setting them free and so when you're stuck, sometimes you've gone through all these methods. You've done the things that Wally and I have just shared with you. Sometimes you'll do them a favor by letting them go.

Speaker 2:

Wally, when we first opened, I was talking about something that I've been really looking forward to discussing on this episode, and that's the fear that you're going to fail. And I see this over and over and over, regardless of the people I coach, regardless of the size of the organization, regardless of all the guys that we've had come through Iron Serpents, iron Mastermind, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them over the past 10 or 11 years. Probably what rises to the top the fastest is they have a fear of failure. And how do you handle that? Because I know that you've experienced it, I've experienced it. Everyone listening to this has experienced it to some level. How is it that you personally deal with that fear of failure?

Speaker 1:

Sometimes not very well, you know having-.

Speaker 2:

Paralyzes you, doesn't it?

Speaker 1:

Honestly, it's a real thing, having that. Uh, I think that the most vivid example, and recent one for me, is having a business sale event. So when you have a big moment like that, maybe for you it's not a sale of a business, Maybe it's. You've just got the biggest. Six months ago you got the biggest customer with a huge order that you've ever had, or you got the largest contract right, or you hired a rockstar team member and they are crushing it. And so what happens is you find success right. You find you get the dopamine hit right. It's like boom there, it is Like there. And then all of a sudden, within days, weeks, months, years, it's like oh my gosh, like, was that a total? Like mistake? Was it that it was?

Speaker 2:

a happenstance, was it an accident.

Speaker 1:

Like, did I really influence that? You know, obviously, as a believer, I know God has his hand in directing us when we make our plans. I know he's in those things. He's not part of what I fear of failure, but I, because of my sin nature, I tend to do it. I tend to fall back into that. Oh my goodness, like can I do that again? And then then I try a little bit because I put my toe in the water.

Speaker 1:

It's funny because a lot of times the thing that got you to have that first big thing happen right that mountain top or that view from the top, let's just call it that you got up to the top and you saw it. You saw what it looked like and it took you climbing up there, you know working your butt off and like taking risk, and you got it. You got it there. And then you get there and all of a sudden you forget what it took to get there and you start to get fearful and you don't want to take the same risk that you took before, because now you're starting to protect and now you're starting to have a concern about reputation what other people might think Right?

Speaker 1:

And then the enemy starts to put seeds of doubt in your mind. It turns into fear, and it's a vicious cycle if you stay in isolation.

Speaker 2:

Let's spin this just a little bit, though, because I think there's a healthiness of a certain level of that fear. Fear can protect you as well, not paralyzing fear. What?

Speaker 1:

do you mean by that? I think you as well. Not paralyzing fear, but I think you pay attention.

Speaker 2:

I think you pay attention. Like you know, I don't ride horses but I've rode them a few times. But I'm a little afraid they're ginormous. You know these great. You know it's like I'm a little bit afraid. If I just went into that you know not being afraid at all I wouldn't pay attention and liable to get mowed over or something.

Speaker 1:

So I think there's a healthy amount of fear, or you have a healthy respect. There you go.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, that you're at least paying attention to that. One of the things that's really helped me overcome that and I can't say I've mastered it. I haven't. Over the years I've gotten a little more comfortable with it and I always say fear missing an opportunity more than you fear failure, and it will really propel you into leaning into some things that are uncomfortable, that could have some really healthy dividends paid as a result of that, and a lot of people allow the fear to paralyze them and so they don't ever take any risk. And a lot of people allow the fear to paralyze them and so they don't ever take any risk, and so there's never really a substantial payday, if you will, to whatever that could look like for you, whether it's financial or not. So I think there's a certain level of risk that we do need to take. That is a little bit fearful, but for me it's having a growth mindset, just realizing what the opportunities could be, and I've really banished all fixed mindset people out of my life. I just I'm not around those people. I don't want to be around those people. It's like, oh, we can't do it, there's no way. You know that's contrary to my core values, because my core values is everything's figureoutable values, because my core values is everything's figureoutable. We did a podcast episode on that not long ago and I just want to encourage you that, if you have a mindset of, this is possible.

Speaker 2:

Dan Miller, one of my personal mentors and good friends for 25, 30 years, used to say what does this make possible? Even in a very devastating, disastrous situation, he would go that's very interesting. What does this make possible? So I think it's how we frame it up and I think about some of the people. Nelson Mandela had a really good quote. He said I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.

Speaker 2:

There was an interesting story I read about JK Rawlings and she wanted to be an author and she was afraid. She lived in Edinburgh, scotland, and she had gone through a really nasty divorce and she was diagnosed with clinical depression. But despite all of these challenges, she had a dream of becoming an author. She wanted to write a book and her first book was Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Now, when you think about the headwinds that she faced. She was turned down by 12 publishers.

Speaker 1:

Is that crazy to even think about?

Speaker 2:

Unbelievable. And then she went on to write the book, and the first book that she wrote there was only 500 copies printed and today there's over 500 million copies of that book that has been sold. What if she had quit? What if one or two publishers had turned her down? She like, okay, she felt we wouldn't have Harry Potter today, but she didn't. She leaned into that because it was something that she really really wanted to do. So think about that, the areas that you're facing in your life. Is it the next Harry Potter? I don't know, maybe, but lean into that. It's okay to be uncomfortable.

Speaker 1:

So, big A, we've talked about these kind of three things about talent, being stuck with talent, whether it's ourselves or somebody else, our own knowledge and abilities, or just the fear of failing. What's the good next step? For somebody listening Like okay, that sounds great. But like what's a practical like, okay, I can go, I can go tackle this.

Speaker 2:

Well, I think, first and foremost, one of the things that we need is we need to build up our resilience. You need to have a heart to heart, talk with yourself and dig deep within yourself and go okay, what is it that I'm missing? Don't lie to yourself. Really own it and say is it me, am I not leading properly? Am I the cog in the wheel? Like? What is it that I need to do? And I would just say, first and foremost, to build up some resiliency within yourself. Dr Andy Garrett is in our mastermind group. He's been in for eight or nine years. He's a phenomenal guy. He created a course on resilience and in the show notes there'll be a link that you can go to his site that he really works you through steps to become resilient, and I just want to encourage you to go look at that. Dr Andy's a great guy, put a lot of effort and energy into this, and so I would just encourage you to do that.

Speaker 2:

The next thing that I would do is to kind of reframe what failure looks like for you. Is it an opportunity to growth? Is it what Dan Miller says? Is it something that you can say? What does this make possible? And then I just want to encourage you to create an environment that encourages calculated risk. Like you're like, hey, I'm not going to play it safe in every regard. Maybe you do it in a percentage. Maybe you say, hey, I'm going to safeguard 75% of my assets, but 25% of it I'm going to put at risk. I'm going to say, okay, there's an opportunity here that I can do some things, and so create that environment that gives you permission to be able to go out and take some of these calculated risks.

Speaker 2:

While I remember my mom when I was a kid talking about going in business when I was 19 years old, she said, you know, we really never had anything. Your dad and I have just lived a moderate life and we've had just a very modest income. And she said, where nothing is ventured, nothing is gained. And she said I would encourage you to go out on that limb just before it breaks to really explore some of the possibilities that's possible for you. And so it really gave me a sense of encouragement to take that calculated risk. So, as we finish up today, man, I want to remind you that when you feel stuck with your current team, have you asked yourself all these hard questions? There are ways to improve your team without breaking the bank, and I want to encourage you to go back and even listen to this episode again about different things that you can do. There are trusted advisors out there that, when you're feeling isolated or you're just reached your level of knowledge base that they can help you.

Speaker 2:

I would just simply say that sometimes a pause is okay, and don't feel pressured to move forward until you have a clear vision on the next right step. It's okay. It's okay to take a break. It's okay to be paused for a moment until you get that great clarity. I'm going to loan you my courage today, if that's okay with you. Right now you can borrow what Wally and I have to give you the ability to push forward. So don't allow this fear to keep you from your dreams. Lean in at the right time and face those challenges head on, kind of like JK Rowling did, and look at the success that she had as a result of leaning into her fear. What if she had turned down the first offer? She wouldn't have had an opportunity to have sold over 500 million copies of that book. Fear missing an opportunity more than you fear failure.

Speaker 1:

Hey, as we finish up the episode today, I want to just come back to a couple of things as Big A was finishing up there. At the end he talked about climbing out on a limb and taking some risk. There's a quote that I heard from my grandmother that said she said sometimes you got to go out on a limb because that's where the fruit is. I thought that was so good. So I encourage you to take some risks today. Also, big A mentioned Andy Garrett and the resilience courses. If you can go back and listen to Andy Garrett actually we recorded an episode with him back on number 34. So if you go back to that episode, you can hear him. And also remember to go to viewfromthetopcom slash community to get connected in the ISI community and we will see you there or we will see you next week.