Podcasts about thomas joyner

Ever wondered how personal struggles can shape one's professional journey for the better? Join us as Dr. Christine Yu Moutier, Chief Medical Officer at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), shares how her own mental health crisis during medical school became a catalyst for her lifelong dedication to suicide prevention. Dr. Moutier reveals the deeply personal experiences, including the loss of colleagues and students, that propelled her into a national role where she uses public health strategies to address this critical issue. Her story is a testament to the profound influence of lived experiences on one's career focus and advocacy.Our conversation uncovers the pivotal evolution in the understanding of suicide, moving away from stigmatizing language to a more nuanced health perspective. Equipped with insights from Thomas Joyner's interpersonal theory of suicide, Dr. Moutier challenges prevalent myths and emphasizes the importance of viewing suicide as a multifactorial health issue similar to heart disease. By integrating various research disciplines, we unlock a comprehensive understanding of suicide risk factors, aiming to enhance our ability to support individuals facing crises.We also shed light on AFSP's robust public health approach, from the significant impact of the Out of the Darkness Walks to innovative awareness campaigns like Real Convo and Seize the Awkward. Discover the power of community involvement and gatekeeper training, as we discuss partnerships with industries and the importance of recognizing mental health changes. This episode offers valuable resources and calls to action for clinicians and community members alike, underscoring the critical role each of us plays in suicide prevention.Follow The Menninger Clinic on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn to stay up to date on new Mind Dive episodes. To submit a topic for discussion, email podcast@menninger.edu. If you are a new or regular listener, please leave us a review on your favorite listening platform! Visit The Menninger Clinic website to learn more about The Menninger Clinic's research and leadership role in mental health.

I'm getting to a point in my coaching career where it can feel like I'm on a carousel. I meet heroic business owners all the time and it can feel like Groundhog Day, which was conveniently last week, as I hear some of the mistakes they are making. Many of them ask, “Thomas where are we at risk?” I figured if I'm having that conversation with several business owners each week, so why not have it with all of you? So thanks so much for joining today, it's Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here ready to dive in on the 3 Ways contractors are putting their business at risk. No, I'm not talking about dodging taxes or having poor quality, or failing to build team culture. Although those are important, I want to spend some time on the ones I see most frequently putting businesses at risk across the country. The first one I want to talk about is this…not knowing how expenses affect your bottom line. I've talked about this in the past, but it rears its head all over the place, and here are a few areas I see it.  Firstly, hiring. We look at industry standard instead of what the business can afford. It feels too intimidating to actually build out a Pro Forma and identify what happens to our cash flow when we hire, so we come up with a random number that is in no way based on our business's performance and we decide that we will just have to do more work. How much work? We have no clue, but we'll know it when we see it. If other businesses can afford to pay it, then surely we can too! Sound familiar?  Other areas I see it are in debt payments. We buy a truck or skid steer or scissor lift and don't think through the ramifications of long-term debt payment. Or on the flip side, we need it for a few jobs and we go out and buy one instead of just renting it on the 3 jobs we need it and it really affects our cash position long term. This is KILLING businesses every single day. We don't forecast out our revenue and expenses in any kind of meaningful way, so we have to fly blind and we end up killing our potential profit downstream.  So, what to do about that? Build out a reliable forecast with projected revenue, cost of goods, payroll, nonpayroll expenses, and any other random expenses that will pop up like insurance, tax payments…etc. Build a running tally of projected Net Income and then use those numbers to tweak when adding expenses like hires or equipment purchases. Can you hit your numbers with the new expenses? If not, what does revenue need to be to hit those numbers? Is that realistic? It's a game you have to play where every decision has a reaction. But you, the business owner, need to be on top of it. The second way I see businesses at risk is not giving and writing down crystal clear job roles for their team. It's the area I see things get dropped more than any other. We have 4 people who have overlapping job roles and no understanding of where their responsibilities start and stop. So you, then, end up with 4 people doing things slightly different, or human nature takes over and they let the one person who truly cares handle the most important parts. That person then gets burned out as the weight of the business falls on their shoulders and they leave.  This sound familiar? Absolutely it does! We expect people to know, mainly because we just wish they would take the initiative to figure it out for themselves, we expect people to know what we want them to do! And yet, it rarely works out for the better. We have to build out an Organizational Chart that maps out responsibilities. And maybe it's a great time for you to rebuild job roles to refine your operations instead of lean on the way you have always done it. Maybe it's time to get in a mastermind group or ask a coach to walk alongside you and point out things you don't see because you're stuck in a rut! Once you have the team mapped out, you may need to build a flow chart from Awareness of your business to closed sale and then see what are all of the tasks that need assigning. It takes time, but imagine how much clarity, authority, and purpose it would give your team to know exactly what it will be held responsible for and to be able to compensate on value to the business. Oh, it would be freeing for the whole team! Lastly, I see businesses at risk in the way they don't clearly articulate what will get them to their long-term vision. This may sound complex, but it's not intended to be so. I see businesses chase after deals or projects that they have no reason to chase after because they don't have a clearly identified plan to get to their vision. So they add a massive remodel or a new development, or maybe a completely out-of-the-blue maintenance division just to grow revenue.  It's opportunity-driven, not vision-driven. Months down the road, the lead source dries up or they quickly realize it's not as profitable as they hoped and they are left backtracking to get back to who they were in the first place. It's why we spend so much time on Vision story. We want a bulletproof plan that will lead your business where you want rather than just chasing after any shiny object opportunity that happens to catch your attention and happens to offer the promise of profit. There's so much to think through here, but if you can get laser-focused on what you want to offer from a product and service standpoint, and then stay locked in with that, you stand a much better chance at reaching your vision than allowing every distraction that passes by to knock you off course. I see it every week in the coaching world. Alright so let's recap, write these down, and make sure you aren't suffering from 1 or all of them. Number 1, not knowing how expenses affect your bottom line, Number 2 not giving and writing down crystal clear job roles for their team and number 3, they don't clearly articulate what will get them to their long-term vision Think through those and please, let us know if we can walk alongside you in those. You are not alone! And you're not silly or ineffective as a leader for failing at any one of them! They are tricky and they take work to navigate around and through them.  But the way they set your team up for success when you can effectively manage them, that's running a business you can be proud of. Hope you have a great day!  

Aren't there better ways to accomplish your Vision than by writing it down and just simply looking at it? In short, nope! But let's talk about that today. Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here, thanks so much for listening. Let me introduce you to Eli Hanneman. Now, call me a geek…whatever you want to do. But Eli Hanneman is 20 years old, and from Lahaina, Hawaii. I'm a surfing nerd and follow the professional surfing tour called the CT or Championship Tour. Eli has been a prodigy since he was 12 years old. Everyone knew he was going to be the next great Hawaiian surfer. But, when his professional career started at 17 he limped along and basically was stuck in the minor leagues for the past 3 years…until a month ago…. HE finally qualified.  That day he posted a video to his social media. It's a video of the Note app on his phone dating back to May 22 of 2022. The date he decided to start writing down his vision and keeping it in front of him regularly. Every morning he woke up, and wrote down the date and the simple vision of  I WILL QUALIFY in all caps. He did the same thing every single day, reviewed his vision until this past week he was able to write down, I QUALIFIED!!! He did it. That is the power of reviewing this thing? It's motivation and focus. It's keeping the important things in front of you and not getting distracted by the noise. It's pushing through frustrations and setbacks. And keeping what matters always at the forefront of your mind.  So, if I were sitting down next to you and asked you, pull up your vision. What would you have to pull up? Would you answer, “Oh, I've got it in my head?” Sorry, but that's not good enough. If I pulled one of your team members aside and asked them, “Where are you guys headed as a business in the next 1-3 years?” How would they respond? How much detail could they come up with other than just some dry, bland, maybe even catchy rally cry? Your vision should be regularly reviewed as a team. By regularly, what I mean and what we recommend is a minimum of 6 times a year.  “What, 6 times a year?” Yes, 6 times a year. You want it to roll of their tongues and to get to the point that the team begins to roll their eyes as you read it over. And yes you heard that right, as you read it over! It needs to be written down to the point that you can hold yourself accountable to it, as well. Here's the danger of NOT doing this. You end up somewhere you don't want to be. Author and pastor Dwight L Moody was famously quoted as saying, “Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things that don't matter!” Let me read that again, “Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things that don't matter!” What a profound and powerful thing to say! That's what Vision does. It sets your sights on things that matter. And is failure an option? Absolutely! It's scary to write something down that you could fail at. And, ultimately, that's why I think most people don't do it. It's easier to not know what you were targeting and not know if you failed than to get specific and then to chase after it. It's exposing and tough! But what's the possible alternative? Getting to the finish line and realizing you succeeded at something that doesn't matter or something you didn't want in the first place. So put some time on your calendar if you haven't already. Write the Vision down. Dive into what you want for your family and the freedom from work. Dive into financials and your products and services you offer. Walk through your ORG chart and your client avatar and then finish with culture. Who do you want to be as a business? Man if that doesn't fire you up and make you want to get running after it then keep working on it until it does!  And then once you finish, put it on the calendar 6 times in the next year to pull it up and review the progress. Like Eli Hanneman, the power is in looking at it day after day after day and reminding yourself that success in things that matter is worth working for! I hope that makes sense today and is something that you will put the work in on. As always, if we can help, head on over to mybusinessonpurpose.com and reach out. We'd love to help!  

Join Patrice Miles, BOP Business Coach, and Thomas Joyner, BOP Director of Coaching, as they delve into the power of "Forecasting" on the latest Tuesday Tools On Purpose episode at My Business On Purpose Podcast. Learn to predict financial currents and navigate your business towards stability and growth. Are you working IN your business or ON your business? Do you have all of the foundational elements that will liberate you from the business chaos? Take the assessment to find out which areas you can grow and improve on. Take our Healthy Owner Business Assessment HERE ➡️ https://bit.ly/healthypatrice SIGN UP for our Newsletter HERE ➡️ https://www.boproadmap.com/newsletter For blogs and updates, visit our site HERE ➡️ https://www.mybusinessonpurpose.com/blog/ LISTEN to the Business On Purpose Podcast HERE ➡️ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/my-business-on-purpose/id969222210 SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube channel HERE ➡️ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbPR8lTHY0ay4c0iqncOztg?sub_confirmation=1

Join Scott Beebe, Founder of Business On Purpose, and Thomas Joyner, BOP Director of Coaching, as they break down the 30-Day Business Owner Challenge. Learn about preparation, key takeaways, team strategies, and driving business growth in this insightful discussion.  LISTEN HERE to learn more! Are you working IN your business or ON your business? Do you have all of the foundational elements that will liberate you from the business chaos?  Take the assessment to find out which areas you can grow and improve on.  Take our Healthy Owner Business Assessment HERE ➡️ https://www.boproadmap.com/healthy SIGN UP for our Newsletter HERE ➡️ https://www.boproadmap.com/newsletter For blogs and updates, visit our site HERE ➡️ https://www.mybusinessonpurpose.com/blog/ LISTEN to the Business On Purpose Podcast HERE ➡️ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/my-business-on-purpose/id969222210 SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube channel HERE ➡️ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbPR8lTHY0ay4c0iqncOztg?sub_confirmation=1

I'm a huge NBA fan… but I was struck by something the coach of the Denver Nuggets said minutes after winning the championship this year. Let's dive in and talk about it today. Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here, thanks so much for listening in today. People who say the NBA is trash are just flat-out wrong. It's absolutely incredible to watch what the Denver Nuggets were able to do this postseason. Their win percentage for the year actually improved in the playoffs, which is unheard of. They humiliated arguably the hottest playoff team of the past few years in the Miami Heat and Jimmy Butler. Nikola Jokic found about 25 different ways to impact the game whether it was driving the ball, launching threes, getting assists, playing defense, you name it! It was insane to watch the way that team came together to reach the mountain top of professional basketball. But here's what was fascinating to me. The confetti is falling, everyone is holding their kids, hugging, crying, laughing, dancing… all of it. And in the midst of the trophy presentation, they bring up the coach Michael Malone to interview him. The interviewer does her job and basically just invites him to give his thoughts. He thanks the fans, rightfully so, but then, without flinching, says “I've got news for everybody out there, we're not satisfied with one, WE WANT MORE!!!” And the crowd goes wild. “We want more!” I was up entirely too late, and it just hit me. That's so sad. Think about the message that sends to everyone. The players, the coaches, everyone. We're not satisfied with a career-defining moment. We've worked our entire lives to reach the mountaintop, only to realize that there's another mountaintop and another. So sad that you don't even have time to celebrate before voicing your discontentment and realization that maybe it's not all that it's cracked up to be.   And if there's one prevailing thought that would define our culture right now it's probably that…We're not satisfied. We set sales goals and hit them, and then without celebrating, we set more that are bigger, and that are the goals that we should have set all along. And then we subconsciously say… WE WANT MORE. We hire a new crew and begin to enter a new corner of our industry and become really good at whatever it is we do…and at the end of the year, we hit our numbers. And what do we do? Ok, that was cool, let's do it again, but bigger and better next time! Why? Because…WE. WANT. MORE! I felt so sad for the Nuggets coach. He's worked his way up from an assistant coach in college, to head coach in college, to assistant in the NBA, had multiple stops as a head coach in the NBA and now sits atop the throne and in what would be the crowning achievement for most coaches, he blew right past it to whatever's next. I remember hearing a story about Urban Meyer, head football coach at the University of Florida where they won multiple championships. He said he knew it was time to hang it up for a bit when immediately after he won the National Championship for the 2nd or 3rd time he found himself in a dark room texting recruits, telling them how excited he was to run it back with them. He had lost his way and so have we. So… what do we do with this? I think it starts with two things. We've forgotten the ability to celebrate and truly be grateful for the journey! Or… we don't spend enough time on the front end defining what we want and what truly matters! Let's start with being grateful and celebrating. What do you do as a business to celebrate? When was the last time you celebrated without feeling the need to drop that motivational minute at the end that quietly tells the team they aren't doing enough?  I think we're terrified to celebrate without motivating. We think our team will just stop. And yet, what we see, time after time, is that people just want recognition for their work and effort. Not to have it glossed over and minimized by the thought of…We. Want. More.  We're terrified because we don't know what to do with the feeling that we actually got what we said we wanted and it's still not enough! So… we do what everyone else does. Oh, it must mean we need just a little bit more! So we push and push and push and burn out everyone around us with this endless hamster wheel of success. We need to set up a time regularly just to be grateful and celebrate. Now there may be years or periods where we don't do this. I'm not saying we just blindly celebrate mediocrity or subpar results, but I am 100% saying we set time aside to celebrate a job well done. The second thing we need to do, and this needs to be done way before this, but we need to spend some serious time contemplating what we truly want out of work and life. There's nothing more depressing than putting years of work into something to only realize that it wasn't what you hoped it would be. So what are the things that, if at the end of a chapter in life, are worth the work?  Is it making sure you set aside times for kids' games, date nights, lunches with your teams? Is it making sure you plan in regular times for a weekend away so you don't “miss it” and look up years later to realize life passed you by? It's why we spend so much time on Vision. To make sure that if in 2 or 3 or 5 years, if we hit the bullseye, we will be able to smile and enjoy it! And not think… we want more.  That feeling only comes from knowing you prioritized the right things at work and at home. And didn't get sucked into chasing someone else's vision.  I'll end here. Last week we spent a full day putting on a done-with you team training day for about 15 businesses. We ended the day giving the owners and employees time to think through their personal vision. After that we had them all stand up, to share one thing from their vision story that they wrote down.  It was honestly one of the most powerful moments of my coaching career as they, one after another, said out loud what they hope for in life and work, and family. It was all about people. The people they loved the most and what they hoped for those relationships. A room full of people just like you opening up in a powerful way.  It was such a refreshing reset…to see people “get it”. To understand and reorient their priorities in a world that just says more more more. So will you do the same?  Will you take the time today to plan some time for deep work and thinking through your vision? So that when you finally hit the bullseye you can celebrate, and be grateful and not immediately push past to that awful thought…We. Want. More. Do it today! If we can be a part of that with you, please let us know. Have a great week!

How do your customers and clients feel after they've done business with you? Do they feel your gratitude? Well, let's talk about that today! Thomas Joyner here with Business on Purpose. I spent 4 days last week in Mexico with my wife celebrating our 10th anniversary! Gah, what a special time as it was just us for an extended period of time for the first time in 5 years. We've done a night or two getaways, but having 3 kids in 4 years meant that we always had a little one at home and so getting any more time than that was challenging. We walked into the resort and from the moment we were there we were welcomed in a way that we never have been before. Let me paint the picture for you. The first morning, because it was the west coast of Mexico and 3 hours behind… I woke up wide awake around 4:30 am. I'm used to going 0-60 when I wake up and it was so strange to wake up and NOT be needed by anyone. The tricky part, breakfast wasn't served until 7 am! I remembered the concierge telling me they had 24/7 room service, so I picked up the phone and dialed it…half expecting it to ring and ring and ring. They picked up on the first ring. Remember, it's 4:30 in the morning! Hey is there any way I can get some coffee for two of us? Absolutely, sir! We would love to. I apologize that it will be about 20-30 min to brew a fresh pot for you and your wife, but we will have it there as soon as we can. Great! 20-30 min later, there's a knock on our door, at 5 am with a fresh pot of coffee, a tray of fruit, and a basket of chocolate croissants for us to enjoy. It was incredible.  I just said thanks so much for bringing it so early and they thanked me multiple times and talked about how grateful they were to serve us. Wow…that leaves an impression.  Every time we ate dinner, ordered a drink, asked for a towel, needed anything and everything we were met with gratitude and feeling that the employees of the resort were overjoyed to be asked to serve. So… the question at hand as I was flying home. Is that how our clients and our customers feel when we do work for them? Do they feel the gratitude at being chosen for their work? Do they know that it truly is a joy to get to do the work and serve them? If I had to wager, I would say not! I would say more often than not you are at odds with your clients. Left cursing them under your breath as they walk away or as you leave the job site. Maybe even thinking, if we can get through this one nightmare client, maybe we can get back to the good ones! And some of that's true. There's entitlement and a lack of gratitude on the customer side. There's no doubt about that. But I think it's more than just that. I think that we've forgotten that work is a gift. That we were designed to work and create and problem solve and all of that, in and of itself, is a gift. Because think about this for a minute. If what you were doing is easy, if it didn't come with problems, people wouldn't need you to do it! They would do it themselves and probably not pay someone like you to do it for them. If it didn't require expertise and planning and calculation and learned skills, you would not be able to make a living doing it! So maybe there's a mindset shift that needs to happen. Next time there is an issue, can we train ourselves to be thankful… to feel gratitude for that problem. Because behind the problem itself is the reason we can build a business around solving that unique challenge! That is exciting! That's something you can retrain your team on. To feel joy at the challenges because each and every one of them is job security and the opportunity to support your family moving forward.  I think that's what the employees of this resort thought. They were grateful to serve because they knew the more people they served in an exceptional manner, the more people would want to come there and a better life for their family! But not just that, I think the gratitude that was present helped them not just, “get through the day,” but helped them enjoy their days working. And there's a huge difference between the two. So, how do you need to shift your thinking? What problems in your work need to be seen with gratitude? And do you need to take an inventory of how your customers feel when they are done working with you? I think it's a great place to start and a great way to enjoy your work more!  Bring it up around your team and see if it changes your culture and deliverables. Alright! Have a great day…and if I'm practicing what I'm preaching. Thank you for continuing to listen and allow us the opportunity to keep delivering content like this to business owners. It really is a gift to us and a joy to keep doing it. Take care!

Listen to Thomas Joyner, Director of Coaching, and Brent Whitaker, Business Coach, as they discuss the importance of having a clear mission statement. They talk about the difference between passion and purpose, and how purpose is what drives us forward even when our passions change. They also discuss how a mission statement can guide a business and why it's important to define your own mission instead of letting others define it for you. Ultimately, a well-defined mission statement helps us understand the "why" behind our work and keeps us motivated to push through difficult times. LISTEN HERE to learn more! Are you working IN your business or ON your business? Do you have all of the foundational elements that will liberate you from the business chaos?  Take the assessment to find out which areas you can grow and improve on.  Take our Healthy Owner Business Assessment HERE ➡️ https://www.boproadmap.com/healthy SIGN UP for our Newsletter HERE ➡️ https://www.boproadmap.com/newsletter For blogs and updates, visit our site HERE ➡️ https://www.mybusinessonpurpose.com/blog/ LISTEN to the Business On Purpose Podcast HERE ➡️ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/my-business-on-purpose/id969222210 SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube channel HERE ➡️ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbPR8lTHY0ay4c0iqncOztg?sub_confirmation=1

Multiple Bank Accounts are a nonnegotiable for a growing, thriving business. We've received a lot of pushback on this one, so let's talk about it. Business On Purpose is here to talk financials! Scott Beebe and Thomas Joyner are giving us an overview on subdividing bank accounts, whether or not the "it's so much work for my bookkeeper!" is a good enough excuse, and why P&Ls may not tell you everything you need to know.  If you're wanting peace of mind around your businesses' financials: profitability, "do we have enough for taxes?" and growth planning, you need to listen to this episode!  Are you working IN your business or ON your business? Do you have all of the foundational elements that will liberate you from the business chaos?  Take the assessment to find out which areas you can grow and improve on.  Take our Healthy Owner Business Assessment HERE ➡️ https://www.boproadmap.com/healthy SIGN UP for our Newsletter HERE ➡️ https://www.boproadmap.com/newsletter For blogs and updates, visit our site HERE ➡️ https://www.mybusinessonpurpose.com/blog/ LISTEN to the Business On Purpose Podcast HERE ➡️ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/my-business-on-purpose/id969222210 SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube channel HERE ➡️ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbPR8lTHY0ay4c0iqncOztg?sub_confirmation=1

We are 6 weeks from the end of the year. What does your team need to hear from you as you finish it out? Well, let's talk about that today. Happy Monday y'all, Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here. We spent hours last week running what we call Prep Week with every one of our clients. Making sure they were focused on the things that matter heading into 2023!  We got all kinds of feedback, from “Yes, we needed that.” to “It's so crazy, it's already time for these discussions,” to even “Man, I'm really excited for next year!” And all of those statements are true. What we've realized is if we don't plan intentional time in the year for some of these conversations, they sneak up on us and they get rushed or worse, never happen. The same can be said for your Annual letter. Many times, we realize we're two weeks out from the end of the year, so we rush it and lose much of its impact. We write down a few thoughts that have little meaning, print it out, sign our name at the bottom and send it out. But that's such a miss! It falls far, far short of what your Annual letter could be. So, I want to walk you through 3 reasons to write a killer year-end or annual letter to your team and maybe offer a few tips for how to make it have an impact. Your team needs to hear from you It's simple. Your team AND YOU work too hard to not know whether the year was a success or not. They need to hear what you thought of the year and hear it in your voice! Not some quick, thrown together thing, but a well thought out analysis of how much we accomplished this year. It's powerful when you read it aloud to them and can celebrate together. If there's one thing I think we don't do enough of, it's collective celebration. Pausing to focus on the gain we have made and all the hard work that was put in to that. Thanking them for all they did to accomplish it and maybe even acknowledging the major hurdles y'all had to overcome. This helps build a team that craves growth because they know it will be celebrated and not just accepted. Which brings me to my second reason why: 2. Your team needs to know you see the hard work they put in Use this as an excuse to brag on each person individually. Have 17 people on your team? Tough! That's why you're starting this now. Take a sentence or two to acknowledge each of their individual efforts, brag on them a bit, and make sure you are specific. They work hard all year long, now is the time you get to show them that you saw them. That you saw their contribution and are grateful for it. If you have 5 people, spend a paragraph on them!  This is such a crucial part of building a culture of recognition and accountability. Because if people are never going to get recognized, I don't care how motivated they start out, they will naturally wane in enthusiasm if it's never recognized. But what better way to encourage your team at the end of the year than to brag on them in front of everyone?  And if you have that one employee that this is REALLY tough to find something to brag on them about. Do it anyway. They still deserve it. Take your time and be genuine and show encouragement. I promise it will build loyalty and a positive culture. 3. It becomes an amazing Chronicle of your business journey It's so fun going back and reading annual letters from years past. You can tell where you've been and it's so fun to see the dreams you had, the dreams you accomplished, the battles you were fighting and are no longer fighting, the growth, and the journey. It's amazing to see it and you get to be the one who shares it with your team! Don't skip it. So, if you're one who wants to write a quick email to the team thanking them for the year I would REALLY push back. Spend an hour, shoot or more, writing this thing and making it really impactful for your business. Then let it sit for a week, come back and read it and see if it's missing anything. Then print it out, write a small handwritten piece to each employee and then read it aloud at a team meeting or Christmas party. This is a powerful tool if you will take the time to use it and take the time to put some thought into it.  If you need a few examples, please reach out! I'd be happy to send you some examples. And the last thing I'll say is this. If you're a podcast lurker…just listens and knows you need to take action on some of this or begin working with a coach, now is the time. Nothing changed between last Thanksgiving and this one, and unfortunately, you know it! There's no shame! But there is a different way to do it.  Maybe start by taking our healthy business owner's assessment to see where you stack up. Go right now to boproadmap.com/healthy and take 5-6 min to take it. And reach out! We wake up every morning to liberate business owners from chaos and we want to work with you. Alright, that's it for today! Have a great Thanksgiving!

I spent some time last week with a local business that had just finished redoing their core values. They spent a ton of time getting them right and a question came up. How do Core Values start to trickle down and truly affect your business? Well, let's talk about that today! Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here. What does taking the next step with those look like? How do we incorporate those into everything we do? They should inform every decision we make and every task we complete Does it push us towards Healthy Culture, Excellence in Design, or Healthy relationships? I want to talk for a few minutes about why all of this matters. Like why can't I just come in and work hard and that be good enough. And yet I would argue that following these core values leads 100% of the time to being a great at whatever you do. Can you do it without your values, yes, maybe… but if we lean into a healthy culture, excellence in design, and healthy relationships both internally and externally, it leads to a quality product every time! And…a quality experience, which is just as important. Not sure if you have ever heard of Pal's Sudden Service? Pal's is a local fast food restaurant to Johnson City, TN. 30 locations all across Eastern Tennessee. They keep it as simple as it needs to be. Burgers, hot dogs, fries and milkshakes.  And here are their core values: -Delight customers in a way that creates loyalty -Daily excellence in products and service -Exceptional value -Training for ALL employees Here's where that shows itself. They time each customer as they come into the drive-thru and on average a customer spends 18 seconds at the order window and 12 seconds at the pickup window!!! No wonder customers are loyal.  You would think they make a lot of mistakes going that fast, nope! With their core value of daily excellence in products and service they just finished a study that they make a mistake on an order 1 out of 3600 orders!!! Unreal So they are fast, they are accurate…nailing the first two core values and it leads to exceptional value for their customers. Lastly,, training for ALL employees. New employees get 120 hours of training…120 hours…before being allowed to work on their own. Grilling burgers, mixing shakes, taking orders…everything. Then, every day, every shift…their computer generates the names of 2-4 employees who take a quick quiz…if they pass, they go right back to work, if they fail…it's back to training and retraining to improve their knowledge. YOu may look at that and say…gah that's overkill. I mean it's fast food, does anyone even notice that? Couldn't you say the same about the technical side of your job…fill in the blank. Will anyone notice if we do that well? Well, they did a study…again and their average customer comes to Pals 4x more than the average McDonalds customer. That's a loyal following. That's the culture and the impact you should hope to create. The CEO was interviewed about all of this training and the way they do things and they asked him…120 hours of training, aren't you nervous that you're going to spend all of that time training and your employee is going to just leave? And his response was as good as gold. He looked back at them and said, “No, not really. I guess the way we look at it is, what if we don't train them and they stay?”  That's where Core Values have sunk in so far that they touch every part of the organization. Because they know they must Delight their customers and create loyalty, they must have excellent products and service, they must create exceptional value and they must accomplish all of that through exhaustive training. That ensures that the main thing stays the main thing! So…if you wrote down your Core Values, could you point to practical ways that they are implemented, and do you spend an adequate amount of time on each to make sure they show up with your team every day? I'd wager no. Do…it matters…people notice. Alright y'all, that's all I have today! Take a few moments today to write down each of your values, ask the team if they know them and be honest about whether they are priorities for you or just cute little billboard quotes that have zero impact.

Believe it or not, every time a customer does business with you they come in with expectations both spoken and unspoken. So, how do we manage those and shape those to match what we have to offer? Well, let's talk about that today! Happy Monday friends, Thomas Joyner here with Business on Purpose. Last week, my wife found a deal online. $79 bucks for your first visit. Introductory offer, book here. She ended up calling the office to make an appointment and was so excited to go. She sat down, went through the full experience, and absolutely loved it! About halfway through, the receptionist came over and brought her bill. $240!!! She immediately texted me and was pretty bummed. I told her to just show them the intro web page and ask about it. “Oh, that's an old promotion. Sorry about that.” And that was it. No one told her as she was running up a bill more than 3 times what she expected. Nope, just added to it and didn't even flinch. After her having a short conversation with the receptionist, they lowered it to $200 and she left.  But here's the frustrating part. The service was amazing. Probably worth every bit of the 200 bucks she paid. The place was clean, the service amazing, the staff friendly…and yet because she walked in with an incredibly different expectation for price, she left with a bad taste in her mouth and unable to recommend the place or really want to go back. It felt like a bait and switch.  And to this day, the promotion is still up online… further adding to the belief that it's a bait and switch. Let me flip over to the other side of the equation. The Savannah Bananas minor league baseball team. The first time I went I was a little shocked at how much tickets cost. I'm used to paying 10 bucks or so for minor league night with the Charleston River dogs. I noticed that the price was a good bit higher, starting around 25 bucks, so I was curious if it would be worth it.  From the moment we stepped foot at the stadium, we were entertained. High-fived, laughed, high energy, all the food and drink you could want all included, not wanting to miss a minute of the action.  We left feeling like we would have paid double the price for what we got and the actual product far exceeded what we knew we were going to pay. See the difference? So, if you were to look at your marketing and sales…where do you fail to live up to the expectations? Maybe you need to start by simply writing down the expectations your customers arrive with. And then one by one walking through them and addressing them. If it's timely service, how can you meet or exceed that? If it's value pricing (if that's your goal), how can you be upfront about that to exceed the customers expectations? Maybe it's being innovative and providing new solutions… how do you stack up? Maybe it's having a team that is friendly and joyful? Send some surveys out to customers to find out how you stack up or call up someone you do business with, take them to lunch, and just ask. They will tell you! Because here's the thing… this goes for relationships, dating, business, everything! Discontentment is a direct result of unmet expectations! But if you learn to manage and understand and exceed expectations, or set them appropriately ahead of time…you will create raving fans in your business with long-term relationships where customers come back time and time again. The opposite, of not knowing what expectations are out there or maybe even manipulating them to get people in the door is shortsighted at best and a horrible business model. There's a word that one of my mentors walked me through years ago. Congruence…it's this thought that what's on the outside matches what's on the inside. I think we spend too much time trying to hide one or the other instead of matching the two up and being who we say we are and showing who we say we are. Once we learn to set appropriate expectations and deliver or exceed those expectations, we can finally be a business that will get referred by everyone we do business with. So sit down today, create a list of expectations our clients have, and see where we stack up! Do it! Put in the time and see where you land. Thanks!

It's October! As crazy as that sounds. And I'm curious…when was the last time you looked at the goals you set at the beginning of the year? Have you looked at them yet? Or are they collecting dust somewhere, or worse…did you even write them down? Let's talk a bit about that today. Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here. Thanks so much for joining today. I was sitting in a coaching meeting with some clients the other day and they were a bit dejected. Felt like they were stuck. “We're not making any progress!” they said. “We've been trying to move forward on just keep fighting the same battles.” “Well, let's look at that.” Here's the best part. At BoP we do 12 week goals…small bite sized 12 week plans to keep the business moving forward. Instead of spinning your wheels for a year or more, you can stay on course and refocus every 12 weeks. So, we pulled up their 12 week plan. We had 3 goals written down with a minimum of 10 action steps to accomplish each. As we walked down their list of goals, they realized they had made tons of progress! They were over 50% there for each of their goals! They just had to refocus, realize that they were not, in fact, stuck, and recommit to the action items they had written down. They left the office the other day realizing that they were doing the things that mattered. They were held accountable to a plan and were able to continue checking things off as they moved towards 3 goals that would transform their business by the end of the year. So, back to you. What goals did you write down? Where are they? How do you track them? Have you tracked them this year? If not, why not? Recent research suggests that most goals are abandoned less than 25 days into being set. 25 days!!! I think we have to ask ourselves why. The first reason is we give ourselves too much time to accomplish the goals. I don't know if you remember being in school and being assigned a semester paper. Are you starting that thing week one? Heck no! It's so far off I have plenty of time to get to that. So you put it on the shelf until it's pressing. It collects dust until you realize it becomes urgent! Don't lie and act like you were one of the gold medal students that finished your stuff months ahead, we know the truth! But how about when you were given a big assignment that was due by the end of the week. You get going on it now! It's urgent. To get it finished it can't sit on the shelf, but has to move forward step by step until it's done on time. Goals are no different. We give ourselves too much time to get the work done and either forget about it or put it off until it becomes urgent. That's why we use 12 week plans. It keeps goals constantly in front of us so we never cease to move the ball down the field. The second reason is that some goals need to be broken down into smaller goals. Doubling sales is difficult! And can feel overwhelming, so why not figure out some intermediate goals and metrics to incrementally push towards that. Instead of making one giant leap. Set goals that help you move towards the one big goal. Lastly, I think we don't look at them practically enough. We write these big goals down and don't write out the action steps. We don't give ourselves some easy wins to get momentum. As a result we fail or cease to get moving. Give yourself some action items that can contribute to your goals. Just make a list. What helps me accomplish this. A minimum of ten steps or action items. Set up time to critically think about it and strategize. Then just set some work time to make it happen. Then, set up a time to audit the work. For my clients, we do this every two weeks at our coaching meetings. Intentional time set aside to make sure we're making progress. And here's the secret. It works! It's not a magic wand, but intentional time set aside to work on goals works! Who knew? So, if you're in the group that hasn't checked out your goals since January…no shame! Pull them off the shelf, break them up into bite sized chunks, and make a plan move forward. And if you need help with accountability, reach out! We'd love to help you stay focused and accomplish your mission as a business. Thanks so much! Have a great day.

Our family feels like it's been stuck inside for so much of the last month. Some sick kids, tons and tons of rain, brutally hot weather that we thought was finally behind us, you name it! And yet with the cooler temps yesterday we took advantage of it and took a long family walk. Something we used to do nightly that just had been pushed aside as life got in the way. The simple, little things! We were reminded of how much life this gives us as we played "I spy" the entire walk and had some sweet moments racing each other to the next mailbox.  I came home and immediately thought, why do we forget to do the little things? Because we know, deep down, the little things make the biggest difference for small businesses. Good morning everyone! Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here. I was sitting in with a client a few weeks ago who had not been coaching with me for very long and I was asking them about what separates them from some of the bigger companies doing what they do?  “Well, not that much anymore!” As I leaned in a bit and asked them to elaborate, they proved my point.  “Well, when we first opened it was this thought of superior customer service meets the highest quality. We returned every phone call. We wrote handwritten thank yous to clients after big jobs. We spent extra time on the details. We spent time as a team making sure everything was lined up. And as we've grown, it feels like there is less and less time for all of that! We've kind of lost our way a bit.” Does any of this sound familiar? Well, it should. That's the secret sauce of most small businesses. It's the knowing the name of a client. Or remembering a team members birthday and that they are gluten-free! It's the random handwritten note that shows up in your mailbox instead of some whitewashed thank you email with your name inserted.  It's someone actually answering your call and getting a human on the line instead of a “press 0 to talk to a customer representative.” Or having a weekly check-in with your team to hear their thoughts and get feedback from the boots on the ground. But what happens? Business picks up. The fires grow bigger. The team grows. The daily and weekly checklists get thrown out for the almighty sales funnel, because sales solves all. And yet you look up 5, 8, 10 years from your start and barely recognize who you've become as a business! So, this is my simple reminder to you to ask you…what little things used to set you a part that have now kind of fallen by the wayside. This is a simple reminder to dive back in on those things that may have been neglected because of "insert excuse here!” I know I'm guilty of it.  Dive back in on BIG Wins and team check-ins. Dive back in on an effective team meeting and reestablishing your core values. Pull up a Job role and refresh it. Look back at your weekly schedule and time block your week out. Delegate one thing today. Build out a new process to make something more efficient. Shoot maybe it's just calling a customer to thank them for their business out of the blue! Whatever you've set aside in favor of more important things, bring it up and set aside the time for a bit. I'd imagine that you, like me, would find it refreshing and completely worthwhile! So, here's what I'm going to ask you to do. Write down 10 things that you did when you started out your business that truly set you apart. Now, take one step further. How many of those things do you still do? Have you lost your secret sauce? And be honest, if you've only done it once this year and you used to do it weekly, that does NOT count. Now pick 2 that are seriously important. How can you reimplement these into your routine? How can you recapture a bit of that magic that you had? Maybe remember a bit of why you got into this in the first place. Maybe it's getting your team together and showing them the list and delegating one to each of them. We can't lose the soul of our business as sales increase. It's what got us the sales in the first place! So gather your team up this week. Put an appointment on the calendar to think this stuff through. Recapture the things that truly separate you from everyone else and watch the joy come back into what you do!  It takes intentionality and leadership, but you've got that! Now you just have to do it. Thanks so much y'all get after it!

If I were to walk into your office this week, pick an employee at random and ask them where you're headed as a business over the next year or so, would they be able to answer correctly? I'd wager they may be able to nail a few small things, but would probably fall short of where you'd like them to be. So how do we communicate those things and effectively put the bullseye on the wall for the whole team to chase after? Well, it starts with a team vision day. Let's talk about it! Thanks so much for listening in today, Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here. About a year ago we sent out an employee survey to all of our clients. Just told them to forward it on to their employees, because we were curious how many of them could answer this question. “What's the goal of our business?” And many similar questions like that. Just give them a chance to answer and see what came up. Now, it was fascinating to read the responses. Things like, to make the most profit we can, or to build perfect houses or even to make sure our customers are happy. And yet, there was something missing in most of the responses. Well, a lot of things missing, actually. Things like how big do we want to be and who our ideal client is. Things like what we want the culture to feel like and how much business we want to take on. The size of the team. The gross revenue. The ways we want our clients to feel when they do business with us. All of that. And so how do we take those things, write them down and communicate it to the team effectively so that they hear it and take notice?  Hear me say this… don't overcomplicate it! Have a Vision day, or in our opinion, multiple Vision days throughout the year. We have 6, yep that's right, 6 Vision days over the course of the year. Hour-long meetings where we do nothing but read through the vision of where we're headed and who we want to be while headed there. The other day I sat down with a client and he brought up prepping for their quarterly team meeting where they read through their vision story. I was so proud and he went on and on about how much it's changed their business. They commit to reading through it once a quarter so that their team is never confused about what's important. They see the core values and how it connects with end goals. They can recite the mission and know their why. It's such a powerful way to engage their team and connect the dots so that no one every has to guess at where the endzone is. They know it because it's constantly in front of them multiple times a year.  So, how do you start? Well, the vision needs to be written down. One of our favorite quotes comes from the book of Habbakuk in the bible. “Write the vision down so that those who read it may run!” That's what you want your team to do, see the vision, and have it read over them so that they can run full speed after it! What a powerful picture! Then schedule a date to start it. Don't overcomplicate it. Just read through it and let your team ask questions along the way. Then, after the first time reading through it ask this simple question…”So, after hearing our vision, are there any questions about where we're headed?” If yes, answer them! They are super important.  If the answer is no, ask this. “After the first time reading through our vision, what would you say is important to us?” This is crucial in them retelling you where you are headed and how you want to do business moving forward. You have to know what they heard you say and make sure it sunk in! And if they missed the mark, rework your vision until it communicates what you want it to towards your team. That's vision that moves people forward! Schedule a few more times throughout the year. You want your team knowing what you are going to say before you say it. That's when you know the vision has truly sunk in. Alright, what are you waiting for…put pen to paper and write it down so your team can run after it. Then put it on the calendar and get the entire team there and engaged! Then let us know how it went. Thanks for joining today I can't wait to hear about your Vision day!

There's a new generation of kids hitting the workforce. So, with thousands of options, how do we attract them to our business?  And how do we make sure we have enough runway in front of them so they don't just jump at the next available job that pays a little bit more? Well, let's talk about that today! Good morning friends, Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here. We met last week with about 125 business owners and key leaders to plan out the 4th quarter. One of the resounding issues that kept coming up was attracting talent in the trade industries. Now, about 70% of the businesses we work with are in the trade industries, so we asked them to go a bit deeper into the problem. Well, there's this huge push for high school kids to go to college. Which is great! But, when they get a random business degree or marketing or some other generic degree in communications that they have spent good money and 4 years of their life on, they fully expect to be compensated at a higher rate and to find a job in their field. There's tons and tons of trade work to be had that does not require a 4-year degree, but those kids aren't attracted to some of what we have to offer, and seem to not be celebrated as much for working with their hands. And they're not wrong. Generation Z is coming out of high school or college with an inflated idea of the return on investment from education. They often think, oh I'll get a degree in X and should make a good living right out of school! Even though that's not close to how it works. Meanwhile, there are jobs paying 18/20/22 bucks an hour that you could start tomorrow…WITH A SOLID CAREER TRAJECTORY. Now, don't hear me say college is not important. It absolutely is and higher education should be applauded. But, it should not be some hoop that kids are forced to jump through with no direction. That's a waste of money. But back to the issue at hand. Plumbers, electricians, contractors, roofers…you name it. All of them are struggling to attract talent. People that want to work in those trades. Gen Z looks around and sees people making Tik Toks, podcasts, food blogging, gaming, anything BUT working with your hands and making a stupid amount of money to do so. But I think the question we should ask is not how do we compete with that pay. Good luck with that one. The question we should ask is what is attractive to Gen Z about all of those jobs? Well, it's notoriety. It's having a voice. It's influencing people and being heard. It's also the freedom to be creative and self expressive. Well, you say, that's tough to give kids all of that as a beginning plumber. Yep, I agree…but can we get closer to that? So many of us are stuck in the ways that the trades have worked for the past 50 years and not willing to innovate or change at all. So no wonder kids don't want to work with a bunch of grouchy 50-year old men who are “stuck in the old days!” It sounds miserable. So how can we get them excited about being heard, using their creativity, innovating, serving people…etc. I think the question we need to start asking is…”What are the employees I'm looking for, looking for?” It's a simple question, but until we learn how to answer it, we will be stuck waving our fist at the waves upon waves of Gen Z employees who chose to work elsewhere. We can stick our heads in the sand and say, “man they just don't make 'em like they used to!” Or we can be proactive, recognize the change in the market and get excited about the strengths this new generation brings. Here's the last thing I'll point to. This Gen z group of kids does not have the tangible skills that previous generations had. So we have to double down on 3 things… On the job training and support. We can't just write them off, but have to find unique ways to get them the certifications needed and the hands on experience to survive on their own in the trades. Check-ins and onboarding. This generation wants to be heard more than any generation previously. They want to be listened to and learned from. Give them a voice and genuinely listen. They may surprise you with their perspective. And here's the extreme…if you don't, they will find someone else to listen and somewhere else to work. A “Why” behind their work. This generation is more community focused and cause focused than any prior to it. They want to work for something beyond just clocking in/clocking out and having dignity in their work. So find a cause to support…a reason to come to work beyond the technical stuff you do and let them rally behind it. It's worth it for all employees, not just Gen Z, but without it, they will always be looking for a “Why” to attach themselves to and get behind. Alright! I hope this is encouraging and is a conversation started with your team. What are the employees we're looking for looking for. And how can we become that. Not until we answer that in a real way and communicate it to the oncoming work force can we hope to have our hiring holes filled by the incoming work force. Get to work!

Every time we dive into our delegation roadmap with a heroic business owner, we get a bit of pushback when we tell them they only get 3-4 items that are off limits as far as delegation goes. So how do you delegate the impossible? Well, let's dive on in… Happy Monday friends, Thomas Joyner with BoP here. It never fails, the excuses go on and on and on! That's impossible to delegate. You don't understand! I can't let go of that, I can't train someone to do all of that! We've heard it all. And yet think for a moment, about some of the biggest businesses you know of. The big boys. Did they start out as multi-billion dollar businesses? Heck no! Most of them were mom and pop 1 location businesses that figured out the magic to scaling their business, delegation, and training. That's it! They created and implemented new job roles and equipped their team to do the jobs they were asking them to do. So, if you were to write down all the things you do on a weekly basis. What's that one thing that came up in your  mind that you would love to delegate, but you're thinking…”There's just no way!” Just last week, examples from our clients… one business owner letting go of estimating, for the first time in 6 years of running the business. Another, letting go of the entire back end and hiring a virtual bookkeeper and CPA for the first time. Life changing! Still, another, offloaded a huge piece of their operations and scheduling to another team member for the first time in almost 5 years.  Time after time, day after day, business owners are doing the unthinkable and offloading serious weight in their business and making time for what only they can do in the business. So how are they doing it? Well, we call it the systems mindset. The next time you do an undelegatable task, record the process. Newsflash, this will take time. Record it with a screen capture technology or grab an admin, your spouse, a kid, whoever, and dictate to them as you do every single step. And I mean every single step. As if you were going to grab John Smith off the side of the road and hand this over to him.  From there, communicate to an employee that they are going to begin to own this task. All of it, by whatever date you decide. Now, this may mean they have to delegate something from their task list. No problem, the same steps apply. After you've communicated this, schedule a time to train them on the process. Walk them through every detail and figure out where they may lack clarity or may struggle. Then push them to have a first attempt. Do it alongside them and help them through it. After you do a couple attempts, it's time for them to try it on their own. Resist the urge to jump in and save it. Let them struggle through it. Just like in exercising or lifting weights, if someone helps you lift the bar, you never get stronger. It's the exact same with job roles. The struggle helps in the long run. Set up a series of follow-up meetings to check-in and answer any more questions and support them after the initial training meeting. This may be the most important step. They should own 80% of it at this point and just lean on you for the nuanced points. Lastly, let them own it and then hold them accountable to the standard. Periodically check on progress and continue to support them, but don't micromanage. Expect them to own it and expect them to be proactive in accomplishing whatever it is.  This is another level of business owner. One who realizes what only their role needs to be and spends hours preparing and delegating the seemingly undelegatable, to free you up for what only they can do.  So, go back to that one thing you hesitated on. Start putting a process together…make it bulletproof. Train, hold accountable and offload it so you business can keep moving forward.  Don't make it more complicated than it needs to be or drink the excuse Kool-aid! Imagine if Wal-Mart or Amazon or apple just one day, years ago just decided things couldn't be delegated… they wouldn't be who they are today. Take the time and believe it can be done. Thanks for listening today… go ahead and send us what you are in process of delegating and send us the success stories! It's what gets us out of bed in the morning. Take care!

We spend a lot of time here at BoP figuring out who our ideal client is. We think through what their frustrations are and how they spend their day. We look at what motivates them and how that meshes with what we offer. Is it a fit? No? How can we make it a fit? Because here's what we know…for every person we spend an hour with who is NOT our ideal client, equals an hour that we're not spending with someone we need to be working with. It's that simple. So…who is your ideal client? How do we figure that out? Well, let's talk about that today, Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here. We really are serious about our ideal client. For a series of reasons, but 3 quick ones. Because we know we have the tools to solve our ideal clients' problems. An ice skater that needs help with her choreography? Nope, that's not the scope of work we need to be involved in. We don't have the tools to truly change their life, so why spend our most valuable resource, our non-renewable time, on that. But a business owner with 2-50 employees? Swimming in chaos? Frustrated over more money leaking out the back door than they realized and unsure how to lead their team towards a clear vision? Bingo! That's us. We can nail that! And so every sales call we have we can know with 100% certainty that we have what they need. It makes it very simple for us. The quicker we identify if a person is our ideal client, the quicker we can lock in on them and try to build a relationship. It helps us narrow our focus and not have to cast as wide of a net. It also helps us focus in on a niche and not spend time figuring out if someone is a fit or not. If we spend a ton of time on the front end identifying the characteristics of businesses we have success with, then that helps us care for business owners well and not waste their time and also be able to point them another direction to get help with whatever they need. Because it helps us deliver our best value. When we work with our ideal client, we know we can deliver at or above the perceived value for our services. If it's not a great fit from the beginning, it's going to be a waste of time and resources for the business owner to try to make it work. It's that simple. We deliver the greatest value to our ideal client. So, if I asked you who your ideal client is, would you even know where to start? What do they look like? Dress like? How do they spend their time? Where do they congregate for business meetings and how do you get in front of them?  What phrases come out of their mouth and what do you hope to hear come out of their mouth so you know…YES, we can solve that problem!  Many of us go, “Oh we can work with anyone!” While that may be true if you're selling bottled water, I would push back and say, yes, you CAN work with anyone, but why not put your energy towards an ideal demographic? Your ideal client! Your marketing and sales has to be focused. Because those will become your raving fans and the ones to help grow your business organically. Not the ones you just, “Made it work” for.  So…spend some time today diving in on this. Get incredibly detailed. We have a 2-page document simply outlining our ideal client. That way when we go to a former client or current client and ask for referrals we can tell them exactly who we're looking for and know that we will be able to deliver on our promises. It's worth spending the time to do this now…right before everyone jumps back in this fall. Figure it out, look for them and watch your business do what it is designed to do! Thanks so much for joining, have a great day!

Could you leave your business for 30 days and not check-in at all? Why or maybe why not? Let's talk about that today. Happy Monday friends, Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here. The litmus test for our coaching roadmap is always what we call the 30 day test. Could you leave your business for 30 days and not answer email, voicemails…whatever. What would happen to the business? Would it be able to survive? Would it limp along with quality control issues and employees aimlessly getting through each day? Would people even know what to do and would they get it done? If you're anything like most of our clients when we talk to them…the answer is always, no way. That's impossible! But it's not. I was sitting with one of our former clients last week and he was saying how freeing it was for him to actually try it. He had finished recording all of his systems and processes. He had delegated all of his responsibilities and the day to day operations of his business…and he took off. Loaded up the family for an RV trip out west for 31 days…because why not go a day longer just to prove the system works! No email, no phone calls…just let the team figure it out. And they crushed it! Years of preparation for that 30 day trip and yet the business seemed to thrive as it leaned into each system that had been built along the way. So, if you were to answer no way to the question…what holds you back? Are you the main source of revenue generation? Ok, no problem, how can you begin to share that with someone and delegate? Are you the key person who puts out all of the fires? Great! Start training someone and bringing them into these decisions to get that responsibility off of your shoulders.  But seriously, if you had to hone in on what was holding you back, what's keeping you from starting to offload that? Think the business can never get there? Well change your thinking, work on an ORG chart and a Vision that would allow you to offload it and then go to work achieving it. Because here's the thing. If the answer to this question is no, if you can't take off 30 days and the business survives…it actually means you have a job not a business. That's a harsh truth, but you really just have a job that you have to show up to versus an active business that you are running to work without you. That's a BIG DIFFERENCE!!! Now, hear me clearly…if 30 days off isn't what you want, that is fine. But what is the target? It's a business that COULD work without you if you needed it to.  I have had incident after incident of clients telling me they don't need to work towards that in their business and yet we push them to get it there. And the unthinkable happens. Father comes down with cancer and they need to go home to spend time with him and help through treatment. Daughter gets in a car accident and has to have surgery at a hospital an hour away. Kid does better in a baseball tournament during the summer and gets invited to play in a tournament 4 states away to showcase their talent in front of college coaches and asks you to be there.  These are real situations, where had they just thrown up their hands and said, no we don't need to build systems and processes, they would have missed all of them or at best been rushed and distracted instead of present where they needed to be.  That's why we always say it's not just about being liberated from chaos, but it's so that you can make time for what matters most. That's the end goal!  And for any one of our clients who have had something that truly matters staring them in the face and had the freedom to go with no questions asked, knowing their business would be fine without them, gah that is what we want.  That's why we push and ask the question. So, today, go back to that question and ask what needs to change so I could take 30 days off in my business. Do it today! You'll be glad you did. Thanks so much for joining today, hope you have a great week!

Today I want to talk about something that holds businesses back more than anything else. Continual learning and implementation. Thanks so much for listening in today, Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here. One of our core values here at BOP is learn and implement. We want every conversation with business owners, every coaching meeting, and shoot every time we show up to work to be a learning experience. Relentless and never-ending. We never just want to step back and look at our content, our roadmap, and think…man it's perfect! Because the business world is always changing. It morphs and moves and the climate it operates in changes. We have to be willing to learn and adapt and change with it. Now, we don't want to change the core of who we are, but operationally and strategically we can be out in front as we respond to all of that change. But here's the thing, we don't just want to learn. We want to adapt and implement that learning into our every day. It's next step that so many businesses fail to do today. And that, specifically, is what I want to talk about today. When we see businesses stall, or plateau…9 times out of 10 it's because this thought has entered their mind and not been kicked out like a kid acting out in class. They will think… well, that's just the way it is and I don't ever see it changing. They have waved the white flag on whatever their problem with and growth cannot happen in that vacuum. You see it's that fixed mindset, we seem to have talked about that a million times, that holds business owners and their teams back. I was working with someone the other day and here's what they said…that schedule has always been chaos. And we don't see that changing anytime soon. We've done this for 30+ years and it's always chaos. So here's where I pushed back. If you believe it's going to be chaos, then you've already given your consent to your team that it SHOULD be chaotic…and that's a problem. What part of the process do we have control over? Well, a lot of it. The business owner said. Great! Let's start there and work backwards. So we built out a 12-week plan to get better at the things they control. We wrote out every step of their process with dates that corresponded. Even invited several of their team members into the process to make sure that the next time they walk through this…it may still have some components of chaos, but at least they will own the parts they can control. That's game-changing business ownership. Understanding what you control, and even if 100 times over you fail, taking what you've learned, growing from it, and implementing it into a new process that can lead your team to a more efficient and enjoyable experience.  It's why we get out of bed every morning at BoP…to liberate you from that chaos! So…where have you thrown your hands up in your business and just said, it will never change? Where have you just gotten so frustrated and stopped learning, have made the choice to crack the door and make chaos normal. You cannot tolerate it or it will spread every which way in your business and hold you back from growth. So today, take the time to think through it. Then, do something about it! Put a plan in place. Figure out who needs to be in the room, discuss what you can control in the process, and become experts at the things you control. Shoot, maybe it's inviting other businesses who are a part of it too, and ironing out a process together.  Because newsflash, eliminating chaos helps them too!!! I can promise you if you can take a step back to provide yourself with some margin, it is never the wrong thing to do. It will help in all areas of your business! And here's the last thing…if we can help, please reach out. It's our specialty! Walking along business owner's to figure this stuff out. Because it helps you make time for what matters most in your life. Not just putting out fires, but family and building your team and not having a heart attack! And maybe finally running your business instead of your business running you. Hope that makes sense today! Have a great one.

It's mid-July…back to school is beginning to rumble in the not too distant future, employees are restless and it's time to begin preparing for another season of structure as the fall rapidly approaches. Hey everyone, Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here. So, what do you need to be doing to get ready for that? How can you truly kick it off with a bang and get your team operating at full capacity again?  Well, I've got 3 things you can do TODAY to prepare for the fall. I don't want to waste any time, so let's dive straight in. 1. Take an inventory of where your team is at? When was the last time you scheduled a meeting with yourself to do a self-audit? Are you struggling with motivation? With lack of training? Do you have the right people in the wrong seats on the bus or the wrong people on the bus entirely? Are there glaring holes or areas where your process is severely lacking?  I wouldn't blame you no matter what the answer. But you can't figure out a plan to get where you want to go without having a sobering conversation of the state of your business. Here's what I'll tell you. Be brutally honest. Not negative and debby downer, but honest. Those are two very different things. Negativity keeps you from seeing hope and solutions, while honesty shows your flaws and leaves room for solutions! Lean in on honesty Walk through your Vision, your mission, your job roles and org chart, your core values. Look at your schedule to see if any changes need to be made. Look at vendor relations and any headaches with team members that have been consistent…hopefully, you've kept good notes in your employee check-ins! Take a quick pulse check on your culture…what are you known for internally and externally? Once you have a great idea of the things that need fixing it's time for step 2. 2. Build out a team day for early fall and get it on the calendar What problems came back time and time again. Do you need to walk through processes by department and retrain on all of them? Does your team need more structure and accountability? Do they just need to laugh and play together and enjoy some good food together after a long summer of grinding it out? Do you need to redraw job roles and share lines of responsibility? Are there new people on the team that need to hear you read through your vision story and your mission statement to explain where you're going and why you're going there? Do you need to remind them of your core values and what truly separates you and the standard the team will be held to? Maybe it's just a time to thank them and celebrate and truly build a culture of gratitude…I don't know. But so often we try to address all of this stuff in an hour meeting when the phone is ringing and to-do lists are out of control. But everyone's attention is on their job and not on the meeting…so get your team away. It doesn't have to be at a resort. It can be at a bowling alley, at a putt-putt course, one of your homes, anywhere! But create a time to refresh your team and address anything that came up in your self-audit. It all starts with building it out and putting it on the calendar! That brings us to our last thing to do today… 3. Build in structure of accountability So often this stuff fades quickly because we never revisit it. We have to build new systems to support these areas that need help. If it's something like Core Values, start talking about it every week at team meetings. Where did we see someone live out our core values? And have a small prize like a gift card or silly award. If it's new processes, set up a follow-up meeting once a month to talk through any hiccups or areas to improve it. If it's moving job roles around, have check-ins once a week to offer support and make sure the team is living in the new roles effectively and not drowning! We want to take the easy way out and just act like by us leaving work for a few hours, playing together, and discussing things that matter is really going to create lasting change, but it's only the starting point. If we don't revisit and create repetition and a predictable system to live within, our team just goes back to their same old habits and nothing changes. Address it, coach it, provide the system to live within, and then watch it come to action. So, if you're like almost every business we work with, your team is tired and dragging trying to finish the summer. It's time for a reset. Schedule some time for a self-audit today, build a team day around the things that are found out in your self-audit and then build in structure and accountability to keep things moving the right direction. You can't solve every problem today, but you can start building the framework to fix a handful of them this fall. Hope that makes sense and hope you truly will schedule the time for this work this week. Have a great day!

Delegation… handing off things to your team to allow you to do what ONLY you need to be doing in your business. It's powerful and necessary, but how do you take a task from delegation to done the right way? Well, let's talk about that today.  Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here. So last week I sat in on an interview and we were discussing how the candidate had implemented change in places he has worked before. And he introduced to us his process for delegating and training tasks. I just started smiling as he basically explained to us what we ask our business owners to do when they let go of certain tasks and hand it off to the rest of the team. He explained it in simple terms in a 4 step process that I'll walk you through today. First, there's a directive. A verbal communication of what is being asked to do. If you want someone to take over-invoicing all new clients and getting their payment set up, they have to be told it's their responsibility now.  It never fails, we hear business owners complain all the time that things aren't getting done. When we drill down a bit, they have taught them how to do the task, they have even let them do it from time to time, but they have never communicated that this is now on their job role and 100% (or however much you desire) of the responsibility and execution of the task is handed over. There has to be a directive that tells them what the expectation now is.  From there, comes coaching. A fully built-out process that explains step by step how to you would like it done. Leaving absolutely nothing out. Don't say, oh well they should know how to do that part… I promise you, it is worth your time to write every step out with pictures or a video teaching them how to do it.  Doing it alongside them and coaching them to do it EXACTLY the way you want it done. Equipping them and encouraging them as you reinforce your directive. Third, comes support and accountability. What happens if they have questions? Here are resources for them. Here's when you will check back on them. Asking them at team meetings if it's done and how it's going. Asking if there is anything missing from the process and supporting them as they take it over. Even understanding how long they will need before it is time for them to take it all over.  That's the support they need and that will ensure they are ready for the last step.  Simply Do it. Take it over. It's their responsibility that has been communicated, coached on, supported, and then ultimately owned by them. Now, let's pause for a second. Typically, we jump from step one to four. Directive/Delegation and then you take it and own it. But what does that lead to? Frustration decreased performance and you thinking your employee is less capable than they actually are.  If you skip the coaching step, there is accountability and support, but no clear tangible process for them to use. If you skip the accountability and support, there is not feedback loop to understand if they actually understand the task at hand. All four steps seamlessly go together. They must all be completed. And I can hear it now, Thomas this is going to take forever. And my answer? It's worth it, if it helps you get something off your plate and done effectively day after day after day. Because you're not delegating something so that you can own it again in 30 days. No, you want this off your plate to free you up for something else. Business development or a new role that only you can filL! So make sure it's done the right way. Don't skip steps. Direct and communicate, coach them up, offer support and accountability, then free them up to do it and own it. That's it. That's how you delegate. That's how you liberate yourself and your business from chaos. That's what it's all about!

Ok, we're finally sitting down to meet 1 on 1 with our employees. So what do we ask? Well, let's talk about that today. Good afternoon, Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here. The thing we have been pushing our clients to do more than anything is to sit down and meet with your employees. Spend time listening and learning. Good employees have become a currency in and of themselves, and the businesses that are thriving right now are, typically, ones with solid employees. So, we have been pushing our clients to meet with all key leaders once a week or every other week at a minimum, and then meet with everyone else once a quarter. It's incredibly valuable and communicates that you desire to hear what they have to say and invest in them individually.  In a world where people are looking around for new jobs in record numbers, every meeting counts and every meeting communicates you want them to stick around for a long time. But the thing we hear more than anything is this…” what do I ask them about?” Or…” what do we check-in on?” Well, we built a check-in process to guide you through that. The first thing we want to ask is a general question to open up communication. We typically ask, “Ok, what are you seeing right now?” Super general and allows you to capture their eyes for a period of time. It's incredibly valuable as they are operating at a ground level in a way you are not. Listen, write down what they say, and decide if it's something you need to dive in on or something that needs to be tabled. Then, repeat it back to them. Let them know you heard. Next, we ask, “How are you seeing us live out our mission and values?” This is reinforcement of what truly matters. You will find out quickly if they even know what they are! But will also help you see some truly awesome things that are going on around your business. Third, we ask, “Do you have any questions about your job role?” Clarifying questions to make sure they know what they're being asked to do. Then, if there's ever tough conversations down the road, you can point to these check-ins where you intentionally asked them if they were confused on their job role. It's valuable and will keep them feeling supported. Next, “Anything you need from me?” Again, support and shows you want them to succeed and are willing to help. More often than not, you will hear, “I'm good.” Especially if you're doing these meetings regularly, but when something comes up here, it's dynamite and helps y'all feel like you're pulling in the same direction and on the same team. Keep listening. Here's where I typically stop and ask any clarifying questions you want to hear more about. Don't go too long and try to answer everything at this one meeting. Some things are fine to hold off on, but feel the freedom to dig if need be. The last question is actually your chance to share. And it starts with… here's what I see. It's your chance to offer feedback both positive and negative. That way you're not waiting until your yearly review with an employee for them to hear something that frustrated you back in March. Dive in and tell them what you're seeing. It keeps short accounts. Its holding your team accountable and allowing you to course-correct along the way instead of trying to right the ship way on down the road. So that's it. Take notes, start a file for each employee and consistently ask the same questions…again, and again, and again.  Use the answers to build content to go through at your team meetings. To build training…as if one employee has a question, there's a good chance that multiple are wondering the same thing and just haven't had the guts to ask yet. This is a game-changer. Your employees need to be listened to and need to hear from you! It is team building…It's accountability, it's getting a little bit better every week. Try it, write it down and let us know how it goes. I think you will be shocked at the progress you can make over a course of time by just committing to checking in with your team. Thanks!

I had a client turn down a 1.2 million dollar job this week. 25% of his yearly revenue. Let's talk about why? Good afternoon, Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here. If there's a phrase that I've heard over and over this year, it's “we gotta make money while there's money to be made.” There's a scarcity mindset that is going around in the contractor space. Prices are still on the way up, and yet people continue to build, and work continues to be there for the taking.  So, is all work the same? Is all work worth taking, no matter who the client is and no matter what it costs you? Well, most people today would find a way to make it work. Well, we can hire and train quickly and we'll find a way to get it done. Straight into emergency mode. Straight into the chaos. And yet, that decision is made out of emotion and not with a plan in place. It's almost destined to fail or be awful throughout.  I was so proud recently when I sat down with one of my clients and they said, you'd be proud of me… I turned down 1.2 Million dollars of business yesterday. What? I was losing my mind. Walk me through it.  I had someone approach me about a 1.2 million dollar job and I told them we couldn't do it.  Well, why? I started smiling as I knew where this was going.  A lot of reasons. We don't have the team in place to be able to get the work done. It would have meant hiring guys we don't yet trust to keep the rest of the business going. Force training them and sending them out unprepared for that magnitude of a job. Not to mention the collateral damage of relationships with people who work with us weekly and monthly. What am I supposed to tell them when all of a sudden ⅓ of my workforce is out of commission for the next 2 months and I can't service the jobs they have sent me all along?  Not to mention we probably won't be able to maintain the quality we aim for or the work-life balance that we hold our team to. All of which are core values. It distracts us from who we want to be as a team and where we're headed. Even though it's 1.2 million dollars? Absolutely. I was blown away. Think about what he just said. 25% growth wasn't worth it because it was a distraction. Because it wasn't fair to his team, the business partners he works with on a regular basis, or to his family, as he knew it would be long hours, and sacrificing time with them was not an option. Proud? Man, that's an understatement. But here's what I was most impressed by. This wasn't a tough decision. He had a filter that he put the decision through that removed emotion from the equation. It was an easy decision that weighed on him about as much as if he turned down a chick fila biscuit because he was on a diet. He had his priorities and stayed the course towards his vision.  That is powerful. So here's the question for you. Do you have a filter that you run everything through? Do you know what jobs you want and which ones to steer clear of? Do you allow emotion to push you around and do you see the massive top line revenue number and think…we have to find a way to make this work? That's short-term thinking. But the work has to be done before that decision is ever made.   I'll never forget this same client about lost his mind on a half a million-dollar commercial job last year. After that job was finished we came back to the drawing board and built out parameters for when and how to take a job. What was important about billing and draws and retainage? Who does he trust in the industry and how does he work well with them? That hard work on the front end helped this decision a year later all the easier. He knew what that job cost him from a reputation, a team, mental health, and a family health perspective and he knew how to prevent that from ever happening. Now here's the flip side. This won't be the last massive contract he's offered. I asked him, do you ever want to be able to take on a job like this? Absolutely he said. Great, now let's put the work in to build a business that can support that type of job without sacrificing the other pieces. That's the magic right there. Not letting the tail wag the dog, but building the business that is ready for a 1.2 million dollar contract without being distracted from the vision along the way. So take the time to think through this. Is every contract or sale the same? Is it costing you things you aren't realizing…and how do you put the work in to say no out of principal instead of just figuring it out. That's good stuff today y'all! Thanks for listening.

Look at your calendar. Do it. Obviously, this week is slammed, how bout next? And the next? So when does the faucet cut off so that you actually have some time back on your hands and things slow down? Well, let's talk about that today. Good morning Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here. I saw a meme the other day and I just laughed. Because it represents the way pretty much all of us live our lives week after week after week!  Here it is: Adulthood is saying, “But after this week things will slow down a bit,” Over and over until you die!!! I was dying laughing. I can't tell you how many times I've said the same thing. Next week is a slower week, let's connect then. And if I'm not careful, I look up and it's Thursday afternoon and I'm wondering where that slower week I told everyone about actually was! So, is that you? Are you the person who, at church or your weekly golf match, when asked how you're doing…always tends to answer, busy man how are you? You deserve a busy badge! But seriously, who isn't busy! We fill our weeks with a lot of things that matter and a lot of things that truly don't! So how do we take our weeks back? How do we begin to own our time and get above the chaos of pretending like life is going to magically slow down in the near future?  I've got a secret for you..it's not going to unless you force it to! Or unless you organize that business and chaos into something that makes a lot more sense. Here's another secret for you. It starts with a weekly schedule. Now… I'm not talking about a calendar that tells you what to do. I'm guessing all of you have that. What I'm talking about is a schedule… intentionally built out in advance of your week that tells it what it will look like. A plan. Same thing with any event. You build out a schedule of everything that needs to happen to make sure that you have enough time for it all.  Your week should be no different. It should be a dictated, time-blocked event that takes place with margin for surprises. We always say around here, “Chaos is not optional, submitting to chaos is!”  What that means is that chaos inevitably happens. Something takes longer than it should have. There's a mistake on the job site. Supply chain gets wonky and takes longer to get to you than it should have. However, having a plan in place helps you be able to respond to that chaos so you don't collapse underneath it.  So let's take your week and build out your weekly schedule. Take 10 min and write down the big blocks of things you do every week. Or if it's easier for you to look at the next 2 weeks to get an idea, that's great too.  Do you need multiple blocks for job site visits? Or team training? Estimating, invoicing, bookkeeping, email…you name it. And write down how much time you think you will need to accomplish that task this week. If it's 2 hours, twice a week, write it down. Is it an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon every day? Great! What time best fits in your schedule and when works best for you to be most alert for those tasks? Now go down your list and begin adding to your weekly schedule. The reason we do this is so that you can be fully engaged in your task at hand. How many times have you been answering an email that took some thought? The phone rings, Oh I'll just pick it up and answer this one quick question. While you're on the phone, your admin walks in and needs you to sign a few things and look over the schedule for next week. Ok, I'll just do this for her real quick. By the time you get back to the email, you have no idea where you were, so it takes you an extra 5 min to finish the email as you lost your entire train of thought! It happens all day every day right?!?! But a weekly schedule is different. It's sitting down to answer email and setting a timer if that helps, saying I have an hour to do a deep dive, and everything else can wait. There's very few emergencies that can't wait an hour. It's walking onto a job site and telling the crew, hey guys I'm leaving at 11, so think through what you need from me today and get all your questions out! It's amazing how efficient your team can be when they are forced to operate on your schedule. I think you'll be shocked at how quickly you get tasks finished when you're not trying to multi-task on 4-5 different things! Things get done more efficiently and you have blocks with margin in between to put out those fires that may pop up. Lastly, if you're anything like my client, you will get really good at accomplishing this schedule so that you have more time throughout the week. And here's the last thing I get asked all the time. Thomas, what if I fail at keeping this thing. And here's how I always respond. The purpose of this is to make a plan. A plan that is tweaked is still a plan. Let the weekly schedule serve you, don't serve your weekly schedule. Let it illuminate the areas that you need more training or the areas that may need a bit more or less time each week. Review it every Friday for the next week, so that you're ready to roll on Monday. It's powerful and freeing so that you never have to say that quote I started today with. Hopefully, you begin to lean into rhythms where weeks are manageable and there is a slower week from time to time. Because you've planned and bought that time for yourself.  It's a big deal y'all and it's doable! I hope you enjoyed thanks for listening…

It's beautiful outside and if you're anything like me, you're getting excited for summer right around the corner. It's so easy to get distracted and to hit that wall at work, so here are 3 questions to ask yourself today, to push through that stall wherever you may work. Good morning everyone, Thomas Joyner here with Business on Purpose. It's natural that around April 15, you've mowed your grass a couple of times, spring break just passed, you hopefully paid your taxes and you got your first taste of the summer lifestyle. And then just like that… it's Monday… yet again!  You lose motivation, your problems start to feel magnified as if they will never change and you feel less and less inclined to put in the work to actually change them! Am I alone in feeling this way? I don't think so. So I want you to write down the 3 questions I'm going to give you today and find some time to think about them. Hopefully, it's right after we finish, because you and I both know there's a fire burning in your business the second you stop this video and if you don't stop to process now, you may never get around to it.  So how do we push through? How do we collect ourselves and commit ourselves to doing work that matters and rising above the chaos? Well, here are 3 questions to help get you on the right track. What gets you out of bed in the morning to do what you do? What's your why? Capturing why you wake up and go to work is essential to recapturing that fire in your belly again! And hear me say this. It probably has very little to do with what you do in your day to day. There's a why behind it all that fuels that work and keeps you going.  2 weeks ago I spent a long time working with some clients of mine who do heavy install work with commercial kitchens. We wrote and wrote and wrote and finally arrived at this… we exist to provide solutions, serve our customers, and set the standard. BOOM! When it was written, we all kind of took a deep breath and said, yep that's it. You'll notice that the things that get them excited have very little to do with commercial kitchen installs. But their why resides in being a resource for solutions, service, and being an industry leader by setting the bar. It pushed them to dive back into team meetings and trainings and hiring because they finally realized what they want it their work. That's powerful and you need to spend some time thinking through your why!           2. What do I need to delegate today to make time for things only I can do? So often we're weighed down by things we need to get rid of. Sometimes it's us not trusting and training our team around us, other times we've just don't even realize it's something we can finally let go of. But what things bring you energy that you need to spend more time doing!?! What things will make you feel like you're gaining ground instead of just trudging along. There's a great tagalong question for this… ask who not how. Don't ask, how do i do that… ask who do I need to do this.  Believe it or not, there are people who love bookkeeping, who love invoicing, who love estimating, who want to run errands and help with logistics! There are people uniquely wired to love the parts of your business, you find miserable… so ask who, not how. That's the key.           3. What gains have I made? There's a fantastic book called the Gap and the Gain, where they discuss a lot about what high performers do differently to realize happiness. Instead of focusing on the Gap between where they are and where they want to be, they focus on the gain from where they were to where they are. It's one of the main reasons we have “Write it down” as a core value. It provides so much energy to teams when they realize how far they've come! Instead of constantly focusing on the negative, how far you have to go, you look back for a period of time and celebrate the journey you've been on. There's always a higher mountain peak to climb, but the process must be celebrated or else you turn into a numb, bitter, end goal-oriented business with no life. What gains have you made? It's powerful So, stop what you're doing for 5 minutes and ask yourselves these 3 questions… What gets you out of the bed in the morning to do what you do? What do I need to delegate today to make time for things only I can do? What gains have I made? Those questions will frame your week in the proper perspective and get you fired up to keep moving forward…and get unstuck! I hope you enjoy! Have a great day

What are you holding onto too tightly as a business owner? And how is that holding your team back? Well, let's get into that today. Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here. At our weekly Check-ins, Scott always asks me the same 5-6 questions, and he tends to sprinkle in one or two that come and go throughout the year. His question last week? What am I holding onto too tightly that I need to let go of?  It's a question that's rooted in humility but also rooted in knowing that this business is his baby. And for years he wore every hat in the business. From coaching to bookkeeping, even ordering the toilet paper for our office bathroom. He's done it all for years. So, sometimes he doesn't even realize someone is ready to take something off his plate, because you get locked into these rhythms. But it's a powerful question because there are areas I'm ready to grow, responsibilities I'm ready to take on that will ensure I continue to grow in my job role and not grow bored with my day to day.  I had a client a few weeks back lose an employee to this exact situation. He called them in for an exit interview and one of the things they said, was that they didn't feel like their role had any room for growth. They did the same thing day after day and that things were held a little too tightly by the owner even though they had been working together for years. From an employee's standpoint, they didn't feel trusted, didn't feel like there was any room for upward movement or any vision for their purpose in the business.  So, if I asked you the question, how would you answer? What are you holding onto too tightly as a business owner…and taking it a step further, what are you holding onto too tightly that is keeping your team from growing? Maybe it's something you need to sit down each employee and have a conversation around. Or maybe you need to chew on it a bit yourself first and then use the answer to cast some vision and think through what growth looks like for each part of your business. Think about what that communicates.  It shows you want them around for a long time and have through through realistically what that looks like.  It shows you value them enough to grow them individually. That's powerful as an employee, everyone wants to be somewhere where they are invested in and intentionally challenged to grow. It shows you took the time to build an intentional business. Especially in a market where 80% of people looked around at their work options last year. Employees want to know they are somewhere well run. The best way to show that is by listening and staying one step ahead. So your team knows they are following a proactive leader and not someone just winging it. So, when will you think through this? Maybe it's taking a client to lunch and asking them what they see from their perspective. Do you have team leaders you can grab 30 min with and roll this question into your weekly check-ins?  Here's the pushback we get. Well, my employee isn't ready for more yet. They can't handle it. Ok, I get that. It's your job to communicate that in an effective way and train them up to where they are ready for more.  That's tough to swallow and hard to execute on, but ultimately if we are the leaders of our business, the whole team is following our lead and so responsibility for team development rests squarely on our shoulders.  Don't take that lightly! So what are you holding onto too tightly as a business owner? Take some time to think through it today. Thanks so much for listening… have a great day

What is the difference between a business mentor, consultant, and coach? And why do we choose to be coaches? Let's dive in and talk through that today. Hey there everyone! Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here. We got a question last week from someone outside our network who asked us, “So what really is the difference between business mentors, consultants, and coaches?” I thought it was a great question because to most people it's just a different way of saying the same thing. So what do each do well, and what are the shortcomings of each?  Well, let's start with business mentors. Kind of the most unofficial of the 3. Everyone should have a business mentor. Someone who you can take to lunch and just fire off 100 questions. Someone who is a step or two further down the road and may have survived some of the battles you're facing.  A mentor is a sounding board but largely stays in an unofficial capacity. The beauty of a mentor relationship is they have typically experienced what you are experiencing and can give you some perspective of life on the other side. The drawbacks, well, they are typically not as available to you as you need and are not responsible for holding you accountable. And, from what we see, accountability is huge. Business consultants are hugely valuable, too! When you think of consultants, they will largely be industry-specific. And there is a time and a place for consultants. If you want to launch a new product line or need industry-specific decision-making help. You need someone who has been there and understands the CRMs and supply chains. Someone who knows the yearly cash flows inside and out and can help you make specific decisions that those outside your industry may not be as knowledgeable about. Consultants downside?  They tend to have a reactive approach to their work. Tell me what hurts and I'll tell you how to fix it. They can help you through problems in the future, but the majority of their work is reactive vs. proactive.  Consultants typically are temporary. If you hire a consultant who wants to work with you long-term (greater than 2-3 years), run away. They have no stake in the game to help your performance. No metric to reach, just some ambiguous consulting relationship that is open-ended. Now, if you have a 5-year goal to get somewhere and go into it thinking that way, then great! But be wary, if not. By definition, consultants should have a date by which your relationship is dissolved due to the goal being met. Lastly? Business coaches. Business coaches are somewhat of a hybrid between the two, but like any coach in sports…they have a system. A methodology and philosophy of the way they run a business. Be vary wary of a coach who doesn't have their system. Just like you would never hire a football coach who couldn't walk you through their offense or defense, any good coach should be able to tell you what they are walking you through and how much time to install in your business. Most coaches don't reinvent the wheel but repackage and organize content in a way that is approachable for business owners and provides incredible oversight and accountability. Coaches don't want to teach you how to run a contracting business, they want to teach you how to run a business that happens to do contracting work. They don't want to teach you how to run a landscaping business, they want to walk you through the skills in business that you need to master, to provide a new set of eyes to spy on your business and organize the back end of your finances…for a business that happens to do landscaping. The downside of business coaches. They are not industry professionals. They may not know high-level accounting or what the perfect sales software is for your business. They can't be professionals in all industries. But what they can do is teach you how to run your business, no matter what industry it's in. So there you have it! You will probably need all 3 of these positions at some point in your business ownership. We typically coach our businesses to spend between 1 and 3% of their real revenue on coaching or consulting. It's that vital! There's a reason guys like LeBron James spend millions of dollars a year on personal trainers, nutritionists, sports psychologists…you name it.  They know that to reach peak performance and to maximize their potential, they need people walking alongside them and holding them accountable to a standard. To use their expertise to bring out the best in them. The business world is no different. So what are you waiting on? For us, we specialize in liberating business owners from chaos and we use business coaching as our platform to do just that. If you want a metric for how in chaos you are, take the next 5 min and take our healthy business owners assessment. It's super easy and will give you a score for how well run your business is on the things that we truly value. Head on over to boproadmap.com/healthy to take that now! And please, ask yourself which of these positions could be a value to you today. Have a good one!

What do you value in life? Does it get the appropriate time that it needs every week? Maybe, maybe not. Today I want to talk about how to not stop short of making time for what matters most! Hey there friends, Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here. It's so, so easy as a business owner to have blinders on. To be the one that sacrifices every day and makes sure that nothing falls through the cracks. To just keep your head down and grind until you succeed. But, what gets sacrificed in the moment…and what gets lost if it takes longer than you'd planned to arrive? Well, many times it's your mental health (which we're seeing is a much larger deal than we've ever realized), other times it's your marriage and family, and other times it's just joy and fulfillment in life.  So, if you're honest, which of those, when you go head down and grind out those 50/60/70 hour weeks really gets lost in the shuffle? And now let's take it a step further… Let's play this out 20-30 years. Is success in your business worth the tradeoff? If you were to look back on your life and see it all in hindsight, is that tradeoff worth it, or is it worth digging in and finding a different way to do things? We hear excuses like this all the time…” Thomas, this is the only way I know how to do it!” That's great, let's start asking around and finding a different way to do it. Or maybe it's this, “Thomas you just don't understand, if I hire someone else to manage those things, then I'll have to raise my prices to cover it, or I won't make as much money.” Ok, then the thing you've lifted into that position of what matters most, is the almighty dollar. The take-home paycheck. And is that worth it when you look back 20 years from now? So…if you need to stop this recording after I ask this next question, do it. It's that important. You may need 5-10 min to really be honest with yourself. Cut it back on afterward and finish the last few minutes. “What matters most when it comes to how you spend your time?” What matters most when it comes to how you spend your time. It's why we spend so much time crafting a vision story. So we can know exactly what we value. It's writing things down like, what time do I want to leave every day, because we know that if we leave it to chance we're going to work way longer hours than we should, and the things that matter will get pushed aside. It's writing things down like what the trips we want to take and how often to take our spouse on a date. It's making sure the main thing stays the main thing. Now, I know it's not realistic to say you want to go home at 2 pm every day and think that your business is going to thrive. That may just not happen, but I also know that if you don't paint a realistic picture of what your week looks like, with boundaries around it to keep you from getting carried away, then you don't stand a chance at staying at hitting your target. Because 9 out of 10 times, there's always another task you COULD do, another sales call you COULD make, and another number you COULD double-check. And on and on it goes. And here's where it starts getting serious. If you realize that your business is keeping you from what matters most, it's not worth it! Nothing is worth sacrificing your mental health, your family, and your joy in life. NOTHING!  So, find a way to do it differently. We believe that the BOP roadmap liberates business owners out of chaos and frees your time up for what matters most. We've literally walked hundreds of business owners through it and gotten them back engaged where they truly need to be engaged. Last thing I'll hear regularly from clients…the business is doing great, our numbers are up, the staff is tracking and we're just doing awesome.  I love hearing that! But I go back to those personal pieces on the vision story and start asking about other things. When was the last time you went on a date with your spouse? Well, last year. Ok, let's try another…you said you wanted to take your son out for breakfast one Saturday a month, have you done that? No….ok, how about that weekend camping trip in the fall that you thought would inject some life back into your family? No, and no and no and no. We have to press pause and make sure that our business isn't thriving at the expense of what matters most. We have to make for darn sure that we're not stopping short of making time for what we, and by we I mean you, believe matters most. So that 20 years from now we can look back and be proud of the things we made time for. The people we made time for and the experiences we made time for. We at BOP truly believe that's our work worth doing…every single day. So, if you struggle with that, let's take an inventory of if your business needs help. Would you take our healthy business owner assessment? Go to myboproadmap.com/healthy. It takes about 7 minutes and you will see how your business is set up on things that we believe will liberate you from chaos. And then let's have a conversation about how to find you more time for what matters most.

What do you value in life? Does it get the appropriate time that it needs every week? Maybe, maybe not. Today I want to talk about how to not stop short of making time for what matters most! Hey there friends, Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here. It's so, so easy as a business owner to have blinders on. To be the one that sacrifices every day and makes sure that nothing falls through the cracks. To just keep your head down and grind until you succeed. But, what gets sacrificed in the moment…and what gets lost if it takes longer than you'd planned to arrive? Well, many times it's your mental health (which we're seeing is a much larger deal than we've ever realized), other times it's your marriage and family, and other times it's just joy and fulfillment in life.  So, if you're honest, which of those, when you go head down and grind out those 50/60/70 hour weeks really gets lost in the shuffle? And now let's take it a step further… Let's play this out 20-30 years. Is success in your business worth the tradeoff? If you were to look back on your life and see it all in hindsight, is that tradeoff worth it, or is it worth digging in and finding a different way to do things? We hear excuses like this all the time…” Thomas, this is the only way I know how to do it!” That's great, let's start asking around and finding a different way to do it. Or maybe it's this, “Thomas you just don't understand, if I hire someone else to manage those things, then I'll have to raise my prices to cover it, or I won't make as much money.” Ok, then the thing you've lifted into that position of what matters most, is the almighty dollar. The take-home paycheck. And is that worth it when you look back 20 years from now? So…if you need to stop this recording after I ask this next question, do it. It's that important. You may need 5-10 min to really be honest with yourself. Cut it back on afterward and finish the last few minutes. “What matters most when it comes to how you spend your time?” What matters most when it comes to how you spend your time. It's why we spend so much time crafting a vision story. So we can know exactly what we value. It's writing things down like, what time do I want to leave every day, because we know that if we leave it to chance we're going to work way longer hours than we should, and the things that matter will get pushed aside. It's writing things down like what the trips we want to take and how often to take our spouse on a date. It's making sure the main thing stays the main thing. Now, I know it's not realistic to say you want to go home at 2 pm every day and think that your business is going to thrive. That may just not happen, but I also know that if you don't paint a realistic picture of what your week looks like, with boundaries around it to keep you from getting carried away, then you don't stand a chance at staying at hitting your target. Because 9 out of 10 times, there's always another task you COULD do, another sales call you COULD make, and another number you COULD double-check. And on and on it goes. And here's where it starts getting serious. If you realize that your business is keeping you from what matters most, it's not worth it! Nothing is worth sacrificing your mental health, your family, and your joy in life. NOTHING!  So, find a way to do it differently. We believe that the BOP roadmap liberates business owners out of chaos and frees your time up for what matters most. We've literally walked hundreds of business owners through it and gotten them back engaged where they truly need to be engaged. Last thing I'll hear regularly from clients…the business is doing great, our numbers are up, the staff is tracking and we're just doing awesome.  I love hearing that! But I go back to those personal pieces on the vision story and start asking about other things. When was the last time you went on a date with your spouse? Well, last year. Ok, let's try another…you said you wanted to take your son out for breakfast one Saturday a month, have you done that? No….ok, how about that weekend camping trip in the fall that you thought would inject some life back into your family? No, and no and no and no. We have to press pause and make sure that our business isn't thriving at the expense of what matters most. We have to make for darn sure that we're not stopping short of making time for what we, and by we I mean you, believe matters most. So that 20 years from now we can look back and be proud of the things we made time for. The people we made time for and the experiences we made time for. We at BOP truly believe that's our work worth doing…every single day. So, if you struggle with that, let's take an inventory of if your business needs help. Would you take our healthy business owner assessment? Go to myboproadmap.com/healthy. It takes about 7 minutes and you will see how your business is set up on things that we believe will liberate you from chaos. And then let's have a conversation about how to find you more time for what matters most.

Employees and hiring, hiring and employees… that's so much of what we're being asked about in our coaching sessions. So, what's the trick? Why is it so hard and is it going to ever get easier? While I don't have the answer to all of that, I'd love to give you some thoughts today on how to make it easier. Hope you're doing well today, Thomas Joyner with the Business on Purpose Podcast today! Excited to have you listening and watching. There really is nothing more pressing right now for small business owners than the topic of hiring and acquiring really great employees. It's so frustrating… and look at the numbers. 4.3 million Americans left their jobs for somewhere else… in August of 2021 ALONE!!! That's insane. And since the pandemic started, surveys are recording 20% of people have switched careers. In 2 years. 1 in 5 people! So what do we do with that? All of that uncertainty and the knowledge that everyone is hiring and everyone is looking around? Most businesses think if they can just craft the right indeed ad or just find the right spot to market themselves to potential hires it will all go well. But there is so much work internally that needs to be done to attract the right talent. There's an old quote in the church that applies incredibly well to business. What you win them “through,” you win them “to.” What you win them through you win them to. What that means is this. The means through which you attract people will be what you have to continue to use to keep them.  Think about this in your business. If you hire someone away from another business by offering an extra $2/hr or an extra 10k in salary, what happens the next time someone offers them more money? You either have to pony up the cash or watch them ride off into the sunset. You won them to you through money, so you have to keep them with money.  Maybe you explain to them that they will be on some really cool projects or innovating in the industry. Well, once work gets boring they will start looking around for greener pastures or other businesses that may be more innovative than you. So, how are you trying to attract new employees? Have you put in the hard work to not just market your business to new clients, but new employees. Are you a “destination” business that has all the right ingredients to attract top end talent? Or heck, even just reliable talent? Are you pointing to your Vision, and inviting in people who want to go where your business is headed? Are you pointing to the culture and having your employees highlight how great it is to work for you? Are you marketing yourself as a place that respects work/life balance and allowing your team to spend time with family and actually take vacation. I know I dogged on compensation, but healthy and competitive compensation should ABSOLUTELY be a part of that sales pitch.  Can you ask yourself this question… what is the person I'm looking for… looking for? I know that feels weird to say. But if you draw up your ideal employee, what kind of business do they want to work for?  And are we working hard to build our business into that type of place? That the people we're looking for would come… and ACTUALLY stay? Finding the right people doesn't just happen by accident, but only when we look internally first, knowing that the means by which we win our employees over will be the same reasons they choose to stay for the long haul.  So be intentional about those things. Know who you are and why you're that way! And watch quality employees choose to stay with you for years and years… even in the midst of opportunity elsewhere. We've seen it time and again as business owners, we work with lead with Vision and intentionality.  That's a powerful team that anyone would want to be a part of!

Employees and hiring, hiring and employees… that's so much of what we're being asked about in our coaching sessions. So, what's the trick? Why is it so hard and is it going to ever get easier? While I don't have the answer to all of that, I'd love to give you some thoughts today on how to make it easier. Hope you're doing well today, Thomas Joyner with the Business on Purpose Podcast today! Excited to have you listening and watching. There really is nothing more pressing right now for small business owners than the topic of hiring and acquiring really great employees. It's so frustrating… and look at the numbers. 4.3 million Americans left their jobs for somewhere else… in August of 2021 ALONE!!! That's insane. And since the pandemic started, surveys are recording 20% of people have switched careers. In 2 years. 1 in 5 people! So what do we do with that? All of that uncertainty and the knowledge that everyone is hiring and everyone is looking around? Most businesses think if they can just craft the right indeed ad or just find the right spot to market themselves to potential hires it will all go well. But there is so much work internally that needs to be done to attract the right talent. There's an old quote in the church that applies incredibly well to business. What you win them “through,” you win them “to.” What you win them through you win them to. What that means is this. The means through which you attract people will be what you have to continue to use to keep them.  Think about this in your business. If you hire someone away from another business by offering an extra $2/hr or an extra 10k in salary, what happens the next time someone offers them more money? You either have to pony up the cash or watch them ride off into the sunset. You won them to you through money, so you have to keep them with money.  Maybe you explain to them that they will be on some really cool projects or innovating in the industry. Well, once work gets boring they will start looking around for greener pastures or other businesses that may be more innovative than you. So, how are you trying to attract new employees? Have you put in the hard work to not just market your business to new clients, but new employees. Are you a “destination” business that has all the right ingredients to attract top end talent? Or heck, even just reliable talent? Are you pointing to your Vision, and inviting in people who want to go where your business is headed? Are you pointing to the culture and having your employees highlight how great it is to work for you? Are you marketing yourself as a place that respects work/life balance and allowing your team to spend time with family and actually take vacation. I know I dogged on compensation, but healthy and competitive compensation should ABSOLUTELY be a part of that sales pitch.  Can you ask yourself this question… what is the person I'm looking for… looking for? I know that feels weird to say. But if you draw up your ideal employee, what kind of business do they want to work for?  And are we working hard to build our business into that type of place? That the people we're looking for would come… and ACTUALLY stay? Finding the right people doesn't just happen by accident, but only when we look internally first, knowing that the means by which we win our employees over will be the same reasons they choose to stay for the long haul.  So be intentional about those things. Know who you are and why you're that way! And watch quality employees choose to stay with you for years and years… even in the midst of opportunity elsewhere. We've seen it time and again as business owners, we work with lead with Vision and intentionality.  That's a powerful team that anyone would want to be a part of!

What's the excuse that keeps holding you back from success? Is there a monkey on your back that you just can't shake? We see it all the time… and I want to talk about it today. Hope you are doing well today, Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here. We ask mostly the same questions every time we meet with a new business. We want to know what's holding them back from accomplishing the things they want to in their business. It's typically the same three things or some variation of these 3. Not having enough time to get everything done, not having the right people, or not knowing our numbers. Let's tackle those case by case.  Not having enough time to get everything done. Typically this happens because we live in chaos. We don't intentionally move throughout our week with a weekly schedule, so whoever is yelling the loudest gets heard and gets our attention. Just last week I had a business owner training where attendees were dropping out left, right and center. Business owners who had it on the calendar and just got pulled a different direction and into the chaos. We're trying to buy you an hour of your week to help you work ON your business and it gets derailed. It can be hard to watch because we know the thing that they need is within their grasp and yet they get distracted by the chaos. It's almost like the overweight person texting their gym buddy telling them they got caught up finishing a bag of chips and didn't make it to the gym. The very thing keeping you from health as a business is what distracts you from being able to put the work in to fix it.  Let me say this… if you don't make time to work ON your business, you will constantly be putting out fires with little hope for doing anything else. Some days you have to change it up and you need an outside perspective to help with that. Not having the right people distracts owners too! The same event on Friday I heard things of employees not being able to be trusted to get something done, so it's your job, the owner to dive in and save the day yet again.  So, when does that change? The ceiling for the business is being held back by your inability to train, lead and delegate in your business.  Or maybe it's not knowing your numbers. Not knowing if you're paying your team enough or too much, or pricing your jobs correctly, or what the Net Income number on your P&L even means. So, instead of finding someone who can help, you just keep going. Thinking if you can just add more to the top line, find more revenue out there the problem will get fixed. Friends the problem is rarely the amount coming in. It's often the amount leaking out the back door that is hurting your bottom line.  Problems with inventory and overtime. Problems with vendors and paying for subscriptions you haven't used in a year. Even things like car payments or excessive benefits. All these add up and limit your profitability.  You need help. Heck, WE need help. It's why from day 1, we've had business coaches ourselves and been in mastermind groups. Because we know we need a coach and need an outside perspective to get where we want to go, as well! So, what's holding you back? What's the thing that over and over and over again becomes the excuse. Is it time? Let us help you figure that out. Is it people? We've got a plan for that! Your numbers…there's clarity and help if you're willing to ask for it.  Take some time today to figure out if you've been making excuses. And ask yourself what are you going to do about it! Does someone else have the answers? Probably so. Look, being a business owner is TOUGH! REALLY TOUGH. Don't believe the lie that you need to do it on your own. It's just not true. And don't believe the lie that your problems today don't have an answer or that they will be your problems forever! THere is air above the chaos and we want you to fly there with us! Let us know if we can help. Hey, if you would like to see where you stack up, please visit boproadmap.com/healthy to take our free healthy business owner assessment today.

What's the excuse that keeps holding you back from success? Is there a monkey on your back that you just can't shake? We see it all the time… and I want to talk about it today. Hope you are doing well today, Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here. We ask mostly the same questions every time we meet with a new business. We want to know what's holding them back from accomplishing the things they want to in their business. It's typically the same three things or some variation of these 3. Not having enough time to get everything done, not having the right people, or not knowing our numbers. Let's tackle those case by case.  Not having enough time to get everything done. Typically this happens because we live in chaos. We don't intentionally move throughout our week with a weekly schedule, so whoever is yelling the loudest gets heard and gets our attention. Just last week I had a business owner training where attendees were dropping out left, right and center. Business owners who had it on the calendar and just got pulled a different direction and into the chaos. We're trying to buy you an hour of your week to help you work ON your business and it gets derailed. It can be hard to watch because we know the thing that they need is within their grasp and yet they get distracted by the chaos. It's almost like the overweight person texting their gym buddy telling them they got caught up finishing a bag of chips and didn't make it to the gym. The very thing keeping you from health as a business is what distracts you from being able to put the work in to fix it.  Let me say this… if you don't make time to work ON your business, you will constantly be putting out fires with little hope for doing anything else. Some days you have to change it up and you need an outside perspective to help with that. Not having the right people distracts owners too! The same event on Friday I heard things of employees not being able to be trusted to get something done, so it's your job, the owner to dive in and save the day yet again.  So, when does that change? The ceiling for the business is being held back by your inability to train, lead and delegate in your business.  Or maybe it's not knowing your numbers. Not knowing if you're paying your team enough or too much, or pricing your jobs correctly, or what the Net Income number on your P&L even means. So, instead of finding someone who can help, you just keep going. Thinking if you can just add more to the top line, find more revenue out there the problem will get fixed. Friends the problem is rarely the amount coming in. It's often the amount leaking out the back door that is hurting your bottom line.  Problems with inventory and overtime. Problems with vendors and paying for subscriptions you haven't used in a year. Even things like car payments or excessive benefits. All these add up and limit your profitability.  You need help. Heck, WE need help. It's why from day 1, we've had business coaches ourselves and been in mastermind groups. Because we know we need a coach and need an outside perspective to get where we want to go, as well! So, what's holding you back? What's the thing that over and over and over again becomes the excuse. Is it time? Let us help you figure that out. Is it people? We've got a plan for that! Your numbers…there's clarity and help if you're willing to ask for it.  Take some time today to figure out if you've been making excuses. And ask yourself what are you going to do about it! Does someone else have the answers? Probably so. Look, being a business owner is TOUGH! REALLY TOUGH. Don't believe the lie that you need to do it on your own. It's just not true. And don't believe the lie that your problems today don't have an answer or that they will be your problems forever! THere is air above the chaos and we want you to fly there with us! Let us know if we can help. Hey, if you would like to see where you stack up, please visit boproadmap.com/healthy to take our free healthy business owner assessment today.

Is there a magic formula for sustaining success in my business? I wish I could say yes, but there are some strategies to help you get momentum! Good morning friends, Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here. So… we get it all the time. Thomas, I feel like I take 2 steps forward and 1 step back every week. Or maybe it's worse, 1 step forward and 2 steps back. How do we get momentum? How do we take that success, replicate it, and then repeat that over and over and over? I'm here to tell you, there's not a magic wand to wave. It takes work and consistency and… wait for it… process.  However, we have found a few strategies that every business can implement to keep you sustaining success. So let's dive right on in today. The first step towards sustaining success in your business is… 1. Find someone to help you implement It sounds simple, but it makes as big a difference as we've seen in every business we work with. So much so, as it's become a question we ask as we interview potential new clients. Do you have a key leader who can help you implement all of this?  Ok, but why? Why can't I just motivate and charge forward with my team following my lead? Well, in short, you can. But what happens when you burn out? What happens when your team starts to tune you out and your voice becomes stale? A whole lot of nothing. That's why having someone who helps you implement is invaluable. Another voice on the team helping push everyone towards the vision. Helping you see things you couldn't and implement all the changes and corrections along the way. Someone who can see your mistakes, think critically, and help you correct them in real-time. That person is a game-changer. We build out a ridiculous amount of tools with our clients and the ones that we see thrive week in and week out are the ones who can pass these tools down the chain of command and out to the team as they implement. They don't just sit in a google drive folder somewhere to rot and collect dust. No, they are used to empower the team to get better. If you don't have someone helping you implement, hire them today or develop one amongst your team. It's that important. 2. Listen to your customer Hey, Thomas, we do google reviews and send out surveys to hear how we're doing. That's great! But I'd wager that most of that is to give you a sentence or two to use on your website… or maybe even to drive sales. But how often do you invite a client to lunch and REALLY ask how their experience was? And I mean everything. How did they feel early on with our estimating? How did the schedule go? Did it line up with the expectations we set out? Did we even set expectations? How was our communication along the way? Could it be better? Was our team dressed professionally? How was the quality of work? How was our clean-up? Did we follow up with you to make sure everything was perfect? Did we collect payment in an easy fashion? These are all questions that you need to know the answer to from your customers' perspective. I was so proud of a client of mine recently, who called every sub he used, sat them down, and figured out how to improve his customer experience from start to finish. That's a game-changer…that's what creates rave reviews and sustained success. Because you own all parts of your customer experience. You don't just throw up your hands and say…”Well, that's out of our control.” That's a fixed mindset. No, ask how you can get better. Invite clients you trust to lunch and talk through all of this. They will feel valued, heard and will probably refer you 10x more as a result. 3. Own your weekly schedule Now, this one gets to the heart of the matter. If you were to sit down on a Monday and write down the things you KNOW have to get done and done well, what would those things be? I'd imagine it doesn't start with email. And yet so many of us leave email open to dictate our day all day every day! No, start with what matters. The big-time blocks…and find the best time to do those. Blocks for sales or prospecting. Blocks for estimating and invoicing. Blocks to meet with your team and train. Those things MUST get done well.  Then figure out the next group of items and add them to your schedule. Is it email and voicemails? Great, give yourself a set amount of time to finish it. Is it continued ed or recording processes? Do it.  Your task will take up as much time as you will give it. So learn to control the chaos and give yourself a realistic amount of time to finish something. Deep work…then move on. Even if you aren't finished sometimes, to keep yourself on task. Lastly, fill in the little 30 min blocks with the little tasks…cleaning up, ordering, simple admin tasks, mindless things that you can fit in anywhere. This one's tough. Give yourself a few weeks to lean into the weekly schedule. Don't change it immediately, but take notes and tweak after a few weeks. That's how you control the chaos. That's how you sustain success. Or at least take a great giant leap towards sustaining success. Finding someone to help you implement Listening to your customers Owning your weekly schedule Hope you have a great week!

Is there a magic formula for sustaining success in my business? I wish I could say yes, but there are some strategies to help you get momentum! Good morning friends, Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here. So… we get it all the time. Thomas, I feel like I take 2 steps forward and 1 step back every week. Or maybe it's worse, 1 step forward and 2 steps back. How do we get momentum? How do we take that success, replicate it, and then repeat that over and over and over? I'm here to tell you, there's not a magic wand to wave. It takes work and consistency and… wait for it… process.  However, we have found a few strategies that every business can implement to keep you sustaining success. So let's dive right on in today. The first step towards sustaining success in your business is… 1. Find someone to help you implement It sounds simple, but it makes as big a difference as we've seen in every business we work with. So much so, as it's become a question we ask as we interview potential new clients. Do you have a key leader who can help you implement all of this?  Ok, but why? Why can't I just motivate and charge forward with my team following my lead? Well, in short, you can. But what happens when you burn out? What happens when your team starts to tune you out and your voice becomes stale? A whole lot of nothing. That's why having someone who helps you implement is invaluable. Another voice on the team helping push everyone towards the vision. Helping you see things you couldn't and implement all the changes and corrections along the way. Someone who can see your mistakes, think critically, and help you correct them in real-time. That person is a game-changer. We build out a ridiculous amount of tools with our clients and the ones that we see thrive week in and week out are the ones who can pass these tools down the chain of command and out to the team as they implement. They don't just sit in a google drive folder somewhere to rot and collect dust. No, they are used to empower the team to get better. If you don't have someone helping you implement, hire them today or develop one amongst your team. It's that important. 2. Listen to your customer Hey, Thomas, we do google reviews and send out surveys to hear how we're doing. That's great! But I'd wager that most of that is to give you a sentence or two to use on your website… or maybe even to drive sales. But how often do you invite a client to lunch and REALLY ask how their experience was? And I mean everything. How did they feel early on with our estimating? How did the schedule go? Did it line up with the expectations we set out? Did we even set expectations? How was our communication along the way? Could it be better? Was our team dressed professionally? How was the quality of work? How was our clean-up? Did we follow up with you to make sure everything was perfect? Did we collect payment in an easy fashion? These are all questions that you need to know the answer to from your customers' perspective. I was so proud of a client of mine recently, who called every sub he used, sat them down, and figured out how to improve his customer experience from start to finish. That's a game-changer…that's what creates rave reviews and sustained success. Because you own all parts of your customer experience. You don't just throw up your hands and say…”Well, that's out of our control.” That's a fixed mindset. No, ask how you can get better. Invite clients you trust to lunch and talk through all of this. They will feel valued, heard and will probably refer you 10x more as a result. 3. Own your weekly schedule Now, this one gets to the heart of the matter. If you were to sit down on a Monday and write down the things you KNOW have to get done and done well, what would those things be? I'd imagine it doesn't start with email. And yet so many of us leave email open to dictate our day all day every day! No, start with what matters. The big-time blocks…and find the best time to do those. Blocks for sales or prospecting. Blocks for estimating and invoicing. Blocks to meet with your team and train. Those things MUST get done well.  Then figure out the next group of items and add them to your schedule. Is it email and voicemails? Great, give yourself a set amount of time to finish it. Is it continued ed or recording processes? Do it.  Your task will take up as much time as you will give it. So learn to control the chaos and give yourself a realistic amount of time to finish something. Deep work…then move on. Even if you aren't finished sometimes, to keep yourself on task. Lastly, fill in the little 30 min blocks with the little tasks…cleaning up, ordering, simple admin tasks, mindless things that you can fit in anywhere. This one's tough. Give yourself a few weeks to lean into the weekly schedule. Don't change it immediately, but take notes and tweak after a few weeks. That's how you control the chaos. That's how you sustain success. Or at least take a great giant leap towards sustaining success. Finding someone to help you implement Listening to your customers Owning your weekly schedule Hope you have a great week!

What do you want to be remembered for as a business? It's an important question without an easy answer, but let's figure out how to get there today. Good morning friends, Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here. I've spent a lot of time recently with clients talking through their mission statements. Now, most mission statements are bland…gutless, and generic at best. They serve little purpose other than putting some ink on a piece of paper to say that you have one.  But… attaching mission to your business can actually serve to give it a purpose that is powerful and can propel you towards significant meaning in the working world. Typically, the question we use when we ask business owners about their mission statement is…”What gets you out of bed in the morning and excited to do what you do?” For us, that's always been liberating business owners from chaos.” It gets us jacked and ready to take on both the good and the bad of our weekly schedules. I was working a few weeks ago with a client and asked him that question… it didn't really land. Well, maybe it landed, but it didn't lead us to a powerful mission statement. So I rephrased it…what do you want to be remembered for? That got the juices flowing. He started throwing out keywords that propelled him forward to realizing his mission and what he wanted to be remembered for. Words like service, creativity, teamwork, leadership. All of that. Pieced together to help him understand his why! So… if I was to ask you the same thing. Do you have an answer?  Do you know what you want to be remembered for? And here's the kicker… does your process reflect that. You have to take it one step further.  If you want to be remembered for having the best, most qualified team, do you invest in them, send them to trainings, spend time developing them as leaders to make sure they are the best and the most qualified? If you want to be remembered for having the best product in your industry, are you investing in R&D, getting feedback from your clients to see where you can improve, and making sure that no one is better? If you want to be remembered for serving and helping your clients succeed, do you have meetings on the front end to capture that vision, do you take the time to listen, and is that a part of your process? These things matter. Your process has to reflect your mission because it's what you're going to be remembered for. Or are you like most people? Winging it… day after day. Not really knowing why you wake up and do what you do. Or what sets you apart. No, the future is a bit fuzzy, but it's ok, we'll figure it out. No… take the time to build out a mission story that propels you forward. A mission statement that gets you excited to wake up in the morning and get to work instead of complaining that it's Monday yet again. You spend too much time at work (almost ⅓ of your life) to just get by. Get excited, know what you want to be remembered for…and then build out and invest in the processes to realize that mission. That's how it's done. I would wager that if you went about every day with that kind of intentionality, your team would want to be apart of you business for a long, long time…and the inspiration that trickled out to the community would be contagious. I hope that makes sense, so spend some time today asking yourself, what do you want to be known for. Have a great week!

What do you want to be remembered for as a business? It's an important question without an easy answer, but let's figure out how to get there today. Good morning friends, Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here. I've spent a lot of time recently with clients talking through their mission statements. Now, most mission statements are bland…gutless, and generic at best. They serve little purpose other than putting some ink on a piece of paper to say that you have one.  But… attaching mission to your business can actually serve to give it a purpose that is powerful and can propel you towards significant meaning in the working world. Typically, the question we use when we ask business owners about their mission statement is…”What gets you out of bed in the morning and excited to do what you do?” For us, that's always been liberating business owners from chaos.” It gets us jacked and ready to take on both the good and the bad of our weekly schedules. I was working a few weeks ago with a client and asked him that question… it didn't really land. Well, maybe it landed, but it didn't lead us to a powerful mission statement. So I rephrased it…what do you want to be remembered for? That got the juices flowing. He started throwing out keywords that propelled him forward to realizing his mission and what he wanted to be remembered for. Words like service, creativity, teamwork, leadership. All of that. Pieced together to help him understand his why! So… if I was to ask you the same thing. Do you have an answer?  Do you know what you want to be remembered for? And here's the kicker… does your process reflect that. You have to take it one step further.  If you want to be remembered for having the best, most qualified team, do you invest in them, send them to trainings, spend time developing them as leaders to make sure they are the best and the most qualified? If you want to be remembered for having the best product in your industry, are you investing in R&D, getting feedback from your clients to see where you can improve, and making sure that no one is better? If you want to be remembered for serving and helping your clients succeed, do you have meetings on the front end to capture that vision, do you take the time to listen, and is that a part of your process? These things matter. Your process has to reflect your mission because it's what you're going to be remembered for. Or are you like most people? Winging it… day after day. Not really knowing why you wake up and do what you do. Or what sets you apart. No, the future is a bit fuzzy, but it's ok, we'll figure it out. No… take the time to build out a mission story that propels you forward. A mission statement that gets you excited to wake up in the morning and get to work instead of complaining that it's Monday yet again. You spend too much time at work (almost ⅓ of your life) to just get by. Get excited, know what you want to be remembered for…and then build out and invest in the processes to realize that mission. That's how it's done. I would wager that if you went about every day with that kind of intentionality, your team would want to be apart of you business for a long, long time…and the inspiration that trickled out to the community would be contagious. I hope that makes sense, so spend some time today asking yourself, what do you want to be known for. Have a great week!

Why do your relationships with your employees always feel strained? Why don't we feel like we're a harmonious team running towards the same vision? Well, I have 3 pitfalls that business owners fall into today that cause friction and tension on every team I witness. Let's talk about it.  Hey there friends, Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here…just grateful for you tuning in to listen for a few minutes today. Business Owners and employees. A match made in heaven? Right? Or hell! No, I'm kidding. But how can we help this obviously strained relationship? How can we have employees who feel respected and excited to come into work? Well, today I want to give you, the business owner, 3 things that you may do without even knowing it that probably contribute to friction and relational strain with your employees.  Now, obviously, all of these are somewhat on a spectrum. I will speak towards the worst-case scenario but take some time to look inwardly and see if any part of it is true for you. At the end of the day, employees want a stable environment where their work is respected and they enjoy what they're doing.  Alright, let's dive on in! The first thing that business owners do that causes friction? Failing to actively listen. I was challenged on this just last week. Occasionally we will sit in on each other's coaching meetings just as a way to make sure we all have the same messaging and gain some powerful feedback on our effectiveness as coaches. I had another member of our team tell me to slow down a bit. As my client was speaking it felt like I was waiting for my turn to talk, to dive right in with the answer instead of validating the question and wait until they are finished speaking.  I was so grateful for the critique because I didn't even know I was doing it. So, if I'm doing it, are you? When you're sitting in a team meeting are you trying to get through it as quickly as possible so you can get the team back to making money? Are you listening to your employees as they bring up frustrations? Do you check your phone during your check-ins and onboarding times? Do you shoot down their dreams and squash their complaints? Do you do anything with the information given? Or does it just sit in a file somewhere… and the information shared just falls on deaf ears. Or do you give eye contact? Repeat the problems. Take the time to work through it with them? Follow up and help solve the problem? Lean in, not get worked up? You see, active listening takes time. It can't be rushed through because the receiving side always senses it! Your employees can tell when you're not with them and your mind is elsewhere.  Resist the temptation to multitask in those situations and actively listen. It will help your relationships with your employees… I guarantee it. Not communicating clearly. This is one I see all the time in businesses… and just in my life in general!  Just this weekend, I saw this in my own home. We laugh about it now, but it was not funny at the time! So, we were about to head to dinner with my in-laws on Friday night. My wife was getting ready and asked me to go put some nicer and warmer clothes on our kids for the evening. Nice and specific, right? Can't screw this one up So, I went upstairs, grabbed the first warm thing in the drawer for my son, the second warm thing for my daughter. And here's where I admit that I am not known for dressing my kids well. I don't understand color schemes and toddler fashion. I heard warm and nice. As I get downstairs with the kids dressed (my son in grey sweatpants and a dark grey thermal shirt. My daughter in a white thermal that barely covered her midriff. My wife got frustrated with me and went up to change the kids again. I had picked the wrong thermal shirt and did not realize my mishaps until it was too late. The lack of clarity on the front end caused friction.  Now, should I have known that gray on gray was probably not the best idea? Yep. Should I have grabbed a shirt for my daughter that covered all of her torso? Yes, most definitely yes. But this highlights the need for clear communication on the front end.  Your employees need a clearly communicated request. We hear all the time, well they should know what I'm asking for. Why? They can't read your mind and probably don't care as much as you do. So set them up for success. Get specific. And write that specificity into a clearly articulated process for them to follow.  That way it doesn't have to be done twice! And that way you can celebrate a job well done instead of it leading to discontentment, resentment, and friction amongst the team.  It is your job as the leader to set the standard and communicate. All the way, no assumptions. Make no time for fun I get it, there's a time for fun and a time to grind. Scott in his coaching time last week talked about grinding…at the right time. There's a time to put on the blinders and just get work done! But, how are you capturing the heart of your team? We're coming up on calendar year 4 of this COVID pandemic. How are you helping be a pressure release valve as anxiety and stress for families are at an all-time high? I was so proud of one of my clients who rose to the challenge and planned a team bowling afternoon with all of their employees still on the clock. They literally paid their employees to go bowling for the afternoon and made it fun along the way.  That's a team that they will not leave. That makes the hard conversations more bearable and shows that you care about them as more than just a cog in your businesses wheel.  Make time for fun. Is it something silly at your team meeting, a minute to win it game, or something to break up the monotony? Is it a movie night where they bring their families? How are you infusing some fun along the way? We spend ⅓ of our lives at work… isn't there some room for enjoyment and fun in the midst of it all? I think so and I think every time you do, it releases some of that friction and makes you feel more like a team they want to be a part of. So, to recap. Friction is intensified when you Fail to actively listen, Fail to communicate clearly Make no time for fun along the way I hope that makes sense. If you need help thinking through this, please reach out. We'd love to help Have a great week

Why do your relationships with your employees always feel strained? Why don't we feel like we're a harmonious team running towards the same vision? Well, I have 3 pitfalls that business owners fall into today that cause friction and tension on every team I witness. Let's talk about it.  Hey there friends, Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here…just grateful for you tuning in to listen for a few minutes today. Business Owners and employees. A match made in heaven? Right? Or hell! No, I'm kidding. But how can we help this obviously strained relationship? How can we have employees who feel respected and excited to come into work? Well, today I want to give you, the business owner, 3 things that you may do without even knowing it that probably contribute to friction and relational strain with your employees.  Now, obviously, all of these are somewhat on a spectrum. I will speak towards the worst-case scenario but take some time to look inwardly and see if any part of it is true for you. At the end of the day, employees want a stable environment where their work is respected and they enjoy what they're doing.  Alright, let's dive on in! The first thing that business owners do that causes friction? Failing to actively listen. I was challenged on this just last week. Occasionally we will sit in on each other's coaching meetings just as a way to make sure we all have the same messaging and gain some powerful feedback on our effectiveness as coaches. I had another member of our team tell me to slow down a bit. As my client was speaking it felt like I was waiting for my turn to talk, to dive right in with the answer instead of validating the question and wait until they are finished speaking.  I was so grateful for the critique because I didn't even know I was doing it. So, if I'm doing it, are you? When you're sitting in a team meeting are you trying to get through it as quickly as possible so you can get the team back to making money? Are you listening to your employees as they bring up frustrations? Do you check your phone during your check-ins and onboarding times? Do you shoot down their dreams and squash their complaints? Do you do anything with the information given? Or does it just sit in a file somewhere… and the information shared just falls on deaf ears. Or do you give eye contact? Repeat the problems. Take the time to work through it with them? Follow up and help solve the problem? Lean in, not get worked up? You see, active listening takes time. It can't be rushed through because the receiving side always senses it! Your employees can tell when you're not with them and your mind is elsewhere.  Resist the temptation to multitask in those situations and actively listen. It will help your relationships with your employees… I guarantee it. Not communicating clearly. This is one I see all the time in businesses… and just in my life in general!  Just this weekend, I saw this in my own home. We laugh about it now, but it was not funny at the time! So, we were about to head to dinner with my in-laws on Friday night. My wife was getting ready and asked me to go put some nicer and warmer clothes on our kids for the evening. Nice and specific, right? Can't screw this one up So, I went upstairs, grabbed the first warm thing in the drawer for my son, the second warm thing for my daughter. And here's where I admit that I am not known for dressing my kids well. I don't understand color schemes and toddler fashion. I heard warm and nice. As I get downstairs with the kids dressed (my son in grey sweatpants and a dark grey thermal shirt. My daughter in a white thermal that barely covered her midriff. My wife got frustrated with me and went up to change the kids again. I had picked the wrong thermal shirt and did not realize my mishaps until it was too late. The lack of clarity on the front end caused friction.  Now, should I have known that gray on gray was probably not the best idea? Yep. Should I have grabbed a shirt for my daughter that covered all of her torso? Yes, most definitely yes. But this highlights the need for clear communication on the front end.  Your employees need a clearly communicated request. We hear all the time, well they should know what I'm asking for. Why? They can't read your mind and probably don't care as much as you do. So set them up for success. Get specific. And write that specificity into a clearly articulated process for them to follow.  That way it doesn't have to be done twice! And that way you can celebrate a job well done instead of it leading to discontentment, resentment, and friction amongst the team.  It is your job as the leader to set the standard and communicate. All the way, no assumptions. Make no time for fun I get it, there's a time for fun and a time to grind. Scott in his coaching time last week talked about grinding…at the right time. There's a time to put on the blinders and just get work done! But, how are you capturing the heart of your team? We're coming up on calendar year 4 of this COVID pandemic. How are you helping be a pressure release valve as anxiety and stress for families are at an all-time high? I was so proud of one of my clients who rose to the challenge and planned a team bowling afternoon with all of their employees still on the clock. They literally paid their employees to go bowling for the afternoon and made it fun along the way.  That's a team that they will not leave. That makes the hard conversations more bearable and shows that you care about them as more than just a cog in your businesses wheel.  Make time for fun. Is it something silly at your team meeting, a minute to win it game, or something to break up the monotony? Is it a movie night where they bring their families? How are you infusing some fun along the way? We spend ⅓ of our lives at work… isn't there some room for enjoyment and fun in the midst of it all? I think so and I think every time you do, it releases some of that friction and makes you feel more like a team they want to be a part of. So, to recap. Friction is intensified when you Fail to actively listen, Fail to communicate clearly Make no time for fun along the way I hope that makes sense. If you need help thinking through this, please reach out. We'd love to help Have a great week

Why Commit to Processes? Why put in the hard work of recording, training, and holding the team to a set list of processes? Well, let's talk about it today. Hey there everyone, Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here! I've always loved Simon Sinek. The author and motivational speaker who just has some amazing thoughts on business leaders, how to relate to this newest generation and what that can mean for your day-to-day. He was talking recently about the power of consistency. And in many ways, that's what our teams struggle with, right? They want the big move, the home run, the grandiose event that shows they put it all together. But in the day to day… there's so much struggle to stay consistent and understand the process of how long it takes things to get accomplished. He pointed out exercise. The first time you go to the gym. You put everything you have into it and come home and look in the mirror. What do you see? Anything different? Nope. Fine, I'll go again tomorrow and try this thing one more time. Look back in the mirror… nothing's changed! This must not work.  Same thing with relationships. You stop by a girl's house who you have a crush on… take her flowers and write her a little note. Is the relationship automatically healthy? Even though the inputs and process may be working perfectly, there's nothing to be seen on a day by day basis. What Sinek points out is that there are almost these universal laws, that, if followed, will produce results. I can guarantee that if you control your eating and exercise daily, you WILL get in good shape. It may take a year, but it WILL happen.  Same thing with relationships, if you commit to serving the other person… to caring for them, you WILL have a healthier relationship.  The important piece is consistency! If it's doing it right 10% of the time? You won't achieve the result you want. Even 50% of the time, probably not. But if you get to the 80% or 90% mark, there's room in there for slipups, the piece of cake here and there, or the day off from working out. But it's the habits and consistency that pays off over the long haul. That's where your process becomes so important. And the training of your processes that reinforce and develop CONSISTENCY. Because the success for your business is never measured in doing it right for a day. Or a week, but consistency over a long period of time! That's why we get nervous when businesses celebrate the Big Deal they landed. Oh…we're going to double our revenue through this one deal it's amazing! Yes, it is…but just like that first date with the girl of your dreams, where everything seems to go right…if you don't have a process to fall back on none of it matters! So…if you were to take time out of your day today and think about your processes. Where do you fall short? Maybe it's starting with celebrating your team for the areas they are consistent. But it's time to critically think about consistency and process. It's time to make a list of the areas you fail more than you succeed. Is it closing sales? Is it the handoff point from the sales team to the operations? Is it inventory management and you're always looking for material? Is it communication with your team and training? Is it onboarding of new clients? Is it client retention for the long haul? Is it hiring and getting the right people on the bus, or maybe holding your team accountable once on the bus? I don't know. But I know without critical thinking and intentionality none of this consistency happens. You start swinging for the fences and striking out more times than not as a business. Sure, you may find some success along the way, but it will never be sustained. So, commit to Process. Not perfection, not talent, but Process. Let that define you as a business. That people know exactly what they are getting when they call you.  And then let that Process turn your business into a wildly predictable (how's that for an oxymoron)...a wildly, predictably, consistent team that shows up day after day and knows exactly what to do. That's the goal friends. Go chase after it.

Why Commit to Processes? Why put in the hard work of recording, training, and holding the team to a set list of processes? Well, let's talk about it today. Hey there everyone, Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here! I've always loved Simon Sinek. The author and motivational speaker who just has some amazing thoughts on business leaders, how to relate to this newest generation and what that can mean for your day-to-day. He was talking recently about the power of consistency. And in many ways, that's what our teams struggle with, right? They want the big move, the home run, the grandiose event that shows they put it all together. But in the day to day… there's so much struggle to stay consistent and understand the process of how long it takes things to get accomplished. He pointed out exercise. The first time you go to the gym. You put everything you have into it and come home and look in the mirror. What do you see? Anything different? Nope. Fine, I'll go again tomorrow and try this thing one more time. Look back in the mirror… nothing's changed! This must not work.  Same thing with relationships. You stop by a girl's house who you have a crush on… take her flowers and write her a little note. Is the relationship automatically healthy? Even though the inputs and process may be working perfectly, there's nothing to be seen on a day by day basis. What Sinek points out is that there are almost these universal laws, that, if followed, will produce results. I can guarantee that if you control your eating and exercise daily, you WILL get in good shape. It may take a year, but it WILL happen.  Same thing with relationships, if you commit to serving the other person… to caring for them, you WILL have a healthier relationship.  The important piece is consistency! If it's doing it right 10% of the time? You won't achieve the result you want. Even 50% of the time, probably not. But if you get to the 80% or 90% mark, there's room in there for slipups, the piece of cake here and there, or the day off from working out. But it's the habits and consistency that pays off over the long haul. That's where your process becomes so important. And the training of your processes that reinforce and develop CONSISTENCY. Because the success for your business is never measured in doing it right for a day. Or a week, but consistency over a long period of time! That's why we get nervous when businesses celebrate the Big Deal they landed. Oh…we're going to double our revenue through this one deal it's amazing! Yes, it is…but just like that first date with the girl of your dreams, where everything seems to go right…if you don't have a process to fall back on none of it matters! So…if you were to take time out of your day today and think about your processes. Where do you fall short? Maybe it's starting with celebrating your team for the areas they are consistent. But it's time to critically think about consistency and process. It's time to make a list of the areas you fail more than you succeed. Is it closing sales? Is it the handoff point from the sales team to the operations? Is it inventory management and you're always looking for material? Is it communication with your team and training? Is it onboarding of new clients? Is it client retention for the long haul? Is it hiring and getting the right people on the bus, or maybe holding your team accountable once on the bus? I don't know. But I know without critical thinking and intentionality none of this consistency happens. You start swinging for the fences and striking out more times than not as a business. Sure, you may find some success along the way, but it will never be sustained. So, commit to Process. Not perfection, not talent, but Process. Let that define you as a business. That people know exactly what they are getting when they call you.  And then let that Process turn your business into a wildly predictable (how's that for an oxymoron)...a wildly, predictably, consistent team that shows up day after day and knows exactly what to do. That's the goal friends. Go chase after it.

Is your Vision Polarizing? Does it help decide who is in and who is out? Well, let's talk about that today. Good morning friends, Thomas Joyner here with Business on Purpose. At the end of every year, we ask business owners to write a letter to their teams. They highlight things like where you've been, where you're going, and how grateful they are for the team.  One of the key pieces is always Vision for the next year. And we'll get into the why here in just a minute. So, a couple of weeks ago, one of my clients did just this. Spent hours writing his letter to his team. They had a great year! And are positioning themselves for another great year. So, he laid it all out… the vision for the next year. How much work they had on the books, who they were as a business, the accountability they would put in place to keep the bar high, and the reward for the team if they reach their goals. Even his wife came home after reading it all fired up, saying that she wanted to sign up to work for the team after having the letter read to her.  3 days later, 3 employees came in and quit. Why? Because the vision was so clear, so polarizing that they decided it wasn't what they wanted to be a part of. They decided it wasn't where they were heading and so they left. Now, you may be thinking to yourself. Ouch! That stings! You put all this work in and your team up and quits on you. Should have been more vague…should have made it easier to hear and lowered the bar. Are you kidding me? Not. At. ALL!!! The business owner called me more pumped up than I've heard him in over a year. I know exactly where we're headed and our entire team is on board. This is the first time I've known we were all pulling the same direction in years! He was absolutely floored… even though his team had shrunk by about 20 percent. Because he knew, that these guys would have fought him all year long and probably robbed his team of performance, profitability, and morale every day that they came to work. That's why we work so hard on Vision. It's polarizing. It separates those who want to be there and those who don't. It sets the destination and the standard and then allows people on your team to make a decision for themselves, which is a service to them even if they don't know it! I've never been more proud! Because it energized the business owner, and the rest of his team, to go out and do what they are uniquely equipped to do! That's a powerful vision. So, if I was to sit down and listen to your vision for your business or team. How polarizing and clear would it be? If you were describing the destination to me, would it be something like this? “Well, we're gonna head up to the northeast and find a town that we're kind of excited about. We may drive fast, but it may take us another day or two to get there. That's ok, though. At least we'll be in the vicinity?” No! You could arrive somewhere you don't want to be! But if it's the city, the neighborhood, the street, the address, the room inside that house or building. Your team can decide if they're on board or not! It's not vague in any way, but crystal clear. And here's the beautiful thing about it. If the team comes to you halfway through the year and says, but we didn't know this is what we were signing up for, you can hold them accountable. You can say, grab your letter I gave you in December that outlined where we're going. I even took the time to write it down for you so you wouldn't forget. And retrain to hold accountable. That's powerful! Imagine how exciting it would be to arrive at your destination a year from now. Or even to slightly miss it, but to be able to look back and say, well, we're way closer than we would have been had we not written it down, shared it and planned for how to get there!  That's Vision that changes you. It's powerful, polarizing, and transformative. And that's the vision you want for your team.  Anything less opens the door for chaos to creep back in and for your ceiling as a business to get lower and lower and lower.  So take time to revisit your polarizing vision today. It's so so worth it. Thanks! Have a great day

Is your Vision Polarizing? Does it help decide who is in and who is out? Well, let's talk about that today. Good morning friends, Thomas Joyner here with Business on Purpose. At the end of every year, we ask business owners to write a letter to their teams. They highlight things like where you've been, where you're going, and how grateful they are for the team.  One of the key pieces is always Vision for the next year. And we'll get into the why here in just a minute. So, a couple of weeks ago, one of my clients did just this. Spent hours writing his letter to his team. They had a great year! And are positioning themselves for another great year. So, he laid it all out… the vision for the next year. How much work they had on the books, who they were as a business, the accountability they would put in place to keep the bar high, and the reward for the team if they reach their goals. Even his wife came home after reading it all fired up, saying that she wanted to sign up to work for the team after having the letter read to her.  3 days later, 3 employees came in and quit. Why? Because the vision was so clear, so polarizing that they decided it wasn't what they wanted to be a part of. They decided it wasn't where they were heading and so they left. Now, you may be thinking to yourself. Ouch! That stings! You put all this work in and your team up and quits on you. Should have been more vague…should have made it easier to hear and lowered the bar. Are you kidding me? Not. At. ALL!!! The business owner called me more pumped up than I've heard him in over a year. I know exactly where we're headed and our entire team is on board. This is the first time I've known we were all pulling the same direction in years! He was absolutely floored… even though his team had shrunk by about 20 percent. Because he knew, that these guys would have fought him all year long and probably robbed his team of performance, profitability, and morale every day that they came to work. That's why we work so hard on Vision. It's polarizing. It separates those who want to be there and those who don't. It sets the destination and the standard and then allows people on your team to make a decision for themselves, which is a service to them even if they don't know it! I've never been more proud! Because it energized the business owner, and the rest of his team, to go out and do what they are uniquely equipped to do! That's a powerful vision. So, if I was to sit down and listen to your vision for your business or team. How polarizing and clear would it be? If you were describing the destination to me, would it be something like this? “Well, we're gonna head up to the northeast and find a town that we're kind of excited about. We may drive fast, but it may take us another day or two to get there. That's ok, though. At least we'll be in the vicinity?” No! You could arrive somewhere you don't want to be! But if it's the city, the neighborhood, the street, the address, the room inside that house or building. Your team can decide if they're on board or not! It's not vague in any way, but crystal clear. And here's the beautiful thing about it. If the team comes to you halfway through the year and says, but we didn't know this is what we were signing up for, you can hold them accountable. You can say, grab your letter I gave you in December that outlined where we're going. I even took the time to write it down for you so you wouldn't forget. And retrain to hold accountable. That's powerful! Imagine how exciting it would be to arrive at your destination a year from now. Or even to slightly miss it, but to be able to look back and say, well, we're way closer than we would have been had we not written it down, shared it and planned for how to get there!  That's Vision that changes you. It's powerful, polarizing, and transformative. And that's the vision you want for your team.  Anything less opens the door for chaos to creep back in and for your ceiling as a business to get lower and lower and lower.  So take time to revisit your polarizing vision today. It's so so worth it. Thanks! Have a great day

What is your mindset going into 2022? What questions are you asking yourself to ensure that you think differently this year and keep growing? I've got 3 that I'd assume you haven't thought of yet and I'm excited to ask you today. Happy New Year to you friends! Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here. So excited you are joining us and tuning back in for another year of the My Business on Purpose Podcast. Each year I try to think differently. To walk down different paths and view things from another perspective! It helps keep things fresh and new and keeps me from getting bored. But, it also helps me to keep moving forward. To keep growing and continue being shaped and resist stagnancy.  I may come to the same conclusions year after year, but at least it will be reinforced by a new perspective and foundation for those same beliefs. So, after thinking through some new perspectives with my clients at the end of 2021, I started asking some questions that are moving me towards some new actions in 2022. I'm excited to take this on as it's a new opportunity to be intentional in everything I do. Alright, so after taking some time to craft these questions last week, here's what I want you to wrestle with this week. Question number 1. 1. What do you consider wealth? I stumbled across an interview with Bob Marley from around 1970 and a reporter was asking him if he made a lot of money.  “What's a lot to you?” Marley asked back. “Millions,” the reporter came back. “No.” “Are you a rich man?” The reporter then asked. “What do you mean rich?” Marley looked genuinely confused. “Do you have a lot of possessions, money in the bank?”  Here's where I was captured… Bob Marley finished with this…”Possessions make you rich? I don't have that type of richness. My richness is life, forever.” And you can hear it in his rastafarian accent. It's amazing. And yet has to make you think right? What do I consider rich or wealthy? What do I consider wealth? Am I chasing someone else's version of “rich?” or wealth? Or am I running after something that I know, if I catch it, I will be content and happy and joyful and satisfied? I'd wager that a lot of us have never truly stopped to think about how we define wealth. Or what you want your wealth to consist of. And what Bob Marley says is a bit ridiculous right? Life, forever. What is that? But at least he's living his version of rich. That's all you can ask for. Now hear me say this. Wealth has to be separate from monetary goals. It can be a part of it. But if you are not happy without it, Money never stands a chance to truly make you happy. In fact, a lot of times it just brings on more and more problems. Accents the hole within. So take some time today to work on your Vision for this year and Define wealth! Question number 2… 2. If someone looked at the way you spend your time and money, what would they say you value? I almost didn't write this question as it's so personal. It's a shot to the heart right? It always hits me in the face at the end of the year when I look back at how we did on our budget. We spent what on what??? Are you kidding me? We don't even like that! Why are we spending our money on that? Or when I look back on how we spent our time last year. Is it with the people we love and care about? Was it doing things we want to be doing or having experiences we will remember?  Or did we waste time? Are we locked into habits that we're sick of? Are we spending time places out of obligation that in now way bring us life?  What does the way you spend your time and money say about what you value? And what do you hope your time and money shows your value? Where's the disconnect?  That leads us to our last question… 3. What do you need to do to intentionally change that? The time is now to make a change. Is it hopping online and canceling all those tv subscription packages that add up! Is it putting time parameters on your iPhone to keep you from scrolling your way into oblivion with all the social media crap you inhale? Is it building a weekly schedule and truly time blocking your week so that the things you value truly have a time and a place and are built into a rhythm for your week? Is it setting your alarm earlier and placing it across the room so you can't hit the snooze button? Is it signing up for a class or sitting down with your calendar and putting the things you value on there RIGHT FREAKING NOW, so you make sure to prioritize what you value? I know if you don't do it now, you will look back on 2022 with regret. Because either you own your time and spend your money intentionally or your time and money get spent for you. There's no in between. And no, you don't have the time, you have to create the time. It will not just happen. So, think through those questions this week. 1. What do you consider wealth? 2. If someone looked at the way you spent your time and money, what would they say you value? 3. What do you need to do intentionally to change that? Enjoy! As always, if we can help be a part of chasing that with you, please reach out.  Have a great 2022 and please go ahead and subscribe to this podcast if you can. We want this content delivered straight to you every week, so make it as easy on yourself as possible. Take care!

What is your mindset going into 2022? What questions are you asking yourself to ensure that you think differently this year and keep growing? I've got 3 that I'd assume you haven't thought of yet and I'm excited to ask you today. Happy New Year to you friends! Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here. So excited you are joining us and tuning back in for another year of the My Business on Purpose Podcast. Each year I try to think differently. To walk down different paths and view things from another perspective! It helps keep things fresh and new and keeps me from getting bored. But, it also helps me to keep moving forward. To keep growing and continue being shaped and resist stagnancy.  I may come to the same conclusions year after year, but at least it will be reinforced by a new perspective and foundation for those same beliefs. So, after thinking through some new perspectives with my clients at the end of 2021, I started asking some questions that are moving me towards some new actions in 2022. I'm excited to take this on as it's a new opportunity to be intentional in everything I do. Alright, so after taking some time to craft these questions last week, here's what I want you to wrestle with this week. Question number 1. 1. What do you consider wealth? I stumbled across an interview with Bob Marley from around 1970 and a reporter was asking him if he made a lot of money.  “What's a lot to you?” Marley asked back. “Millions,” the reporter came back. “No.” “Are you a rich man?” The reporter then asked. “What do you mean rich?” Marley looked genuinely confused. “Do you have a lot of possessions, money in the bank?”  Here's where I was captured… Bob Marley finished with this…”Possessions make you rich? I don't have that type of richness. My richness is life, forever.” And you can hear it in his rastafarian accent. It's amazing. And yet has to make you think right? What do I consider rich or wealthy? What do I consider wealth? Am I chasing someone else's version of “rich?” or wealth? Or am I running after something that I know, if I catch it, I will be content and happy and joyful and satisfied? I'd wager that a lot of us have never truly stopped to think about how we define wealth. Or what you want your wealth to consist of. And what Bob Marley says is a bit ridiculous right? Life, forever. What is that? But at least he's living his version of rich. That's all you can ask for. Now hear me say this. Wealth has to be separate from monetary goals. It can be a part of it. But if you are not happy without it, Money never stands a chance to truly make you happy. In fact, a lot of times it just brings on more and more problems. Accents the hole within. So take some time today to work on your Vision for this year and Define wealth! Question number 2… 2. If someone looked at the way you spend your time and money, what would they say you value? I almost didn't write this question as it's so personal. It's a shot to the heart right? It always hits me in the face at the end of the year when I look back at how we did on our budget. We spent what on what??? Are you kidding me? We don't even like that! Why are we spending our money on that? Or when I look back on how we spent our time last year. Is it with the people we love and care about? Was it doing things we want to be doing or having experiences we will remember?  Or did we waste time? Are we locked into habits that we're sick of? Are we spending time places out of obligation that in now way bring us life?  What does the way you spend your time and money say about what you value? And what do you hope your time and money shows your value? Where's the disconnect?  That leads us to our last question… 3. What do you need to do to intentionally change that? The time is now to make a change. Is it hopping online and canceling all those tv subscription packages that add up! Is it putting time parameters on your iPhone to keep you from scrolling your way into oblivion with all the social media crap you inhale? Is it building a weekly schedule and truly time blocking your week so that the things you value truly have a time and a place and are built into a rhythm for your week? Is it setting your alarm earlier and placing it across the room so you can't hit the snooze button? Is it signing up for a class or sitting down with your calendar and putting the things you value on there RIGHT FREAKING NOW, so you make sure to prioritize what you value? I know if you don't do it now, you will look back on 2022 with regret. Because either you own your time and spend your money intentionally or your time and money get spent for you. There's no in between. And no, you don't have the time, you have to create the time. It will not just happen. So, think through those questions this week. 1. What do you consider wealth? 2. If someone looked at the way you spent your time and money, what would they say you value? 3. What do you need to do intentionally to change that? Enjoy! As always, if we can help be a part of chasing that with you, please reach out.  Have a great 2022 and please go ahead and subscribe to this podcast if you can. We want this content delivered straight to you every week, so make it as easy on yourself as possible. Take care!

We are back… as many of you are watching Yellowstone, like my wife and I. I always leave the show thinking. While it's driven with action and filmed in the heart of a breathtaking landscape, it's the dialogue and sometimes lack thereof, that drives the show and causes you to think. So, we'll dive back in here in a moment but just wanted to thank you for listening or watching. My name's Thomas Joyner and I'm a business coach here with Business on Purpose.  If you haven't seen this week's episode of Yellowstone, I am going to discuss a scene from it. So, if you need to pause this so you don't freak out at me and get upset for spoiling a 30-second scene… that's on you. At the end of this past episode, Jimmy, one of the guys who's kind of being redeemed over the past several seasons. Going from meth addict to miserable stable hand, and now sent to Texas to learn how to be a cowboy, is at the end of a long workday.  The last conversation with his boss, they're sitting there watching someone work and he looks at Jimmy and says this. “Jimmy, if you really wanna be a cowboy… learn to rope.” So that night, Jimmy comes home to his little bedroom. Eats the plate of dinner left for him and notices a rope on the wall. He picks it up, walks outside and pulls the little fake bull into the yard, and starts practicing. As the scene progresses, it's daylight. First throw with the rope? A miss. Second, a miss. Third, and fourth, and fifth. All misses. This goes on for hours as it's late into the night…more and more and more misses. Until finally, the last shot is him roping the bull and pulling it tight. Now, what are we supposed to take from this?  What does some fictional former Meth head turned cowboy learning to rope have to do with you running your business? I think it's all about what work are you willing to do in private. What work are you willing to do when no one is watching? THAT… is the work that truly matters. That truly gives you a leg up.  In the scene with Jimmy, they zoom out and there's no one watching. No one encouraging him. It's just him. Because he knows deep down that the only way to be the cowboy he wants to be is to put in the reps. To put the work in. To do the stuff that's no fun and so far from any type of predictable success that it's frustrating and downright discouraging. So, what work are you willing to put in that no one may ever know that you do? Is it taking the time out of your week to pour over your books, your numbers, to make sure you're making wise choices?  Is it the hard work of recording your systems and processes to be able to train your team in a repeatable and accountable way? Maybe it's getting in to work before anyone knows you're there to map out the day and logistically save your business money by getting everything organized. Or maybe you, like Jimmy, just need to put in the technical reps to get better at your craft. To take rep after rep after rep knowing that there is no shortcut to success. I think if I could take something from this scene, it's that there's no shortcut to success. No get rich scheme out there. There are businesses out there promising that you'll crush it if you'll follow this 5 step program. It's all fake! There is no shortcut. You have to pay the price and put in the reps. But here's the good news. The encouragement in all of this. One day instead of stringing together one success, it will be two. And then three. And then onward and upward. I'll never forget the story of Kobe Bryant before a scrimmage at the Olympics in 2008. He called his trainer at 4:15 am and asked him to come to the gym with him. Even though they had a noon scrimmage. So, they got in a 90-minute workout and Kobe told the trainer, he could head out if he wanted to. The trainer left, went and got a few hours of sleep before the scrimmage and when he got back to the gym, he went up to Kobe to encourage him on a great workout that morning. “Great job Kobe!” Kobe just looked at him and said, “Huh?” “Great job this morning. What time did you get back to the gym?” Kobe just laughed. “I actually stayed here. I wanted to make 500 jumpers from the corner before I stopped and then just decided to make 800 instead.” Kobe, a guy who was born with more talent than probably anyone, realized the value of putting in the reps while no one was watching. He didn't just put up 800 shots, but actually MADE 800 corner 3s BEFORE a scrimmage to make sure he was prepared. Because here's what Kobe knew… and what Jimmy is in the process of learning in Yellowstone. You don't rise to the challenge. That's a myth. You fall to the level of your preparation. What are you doing when no one is watching to raise your level of preparation to a place where everyone else notices when it's time to perform?  That's the important question. Have a great day everyone!

We are back… as many of you are watching Yellowstone, like my wife and I. I always leave the show thinking. While it's driven with action and filmed in the heart of a breathtaking landscape, it's the dialogue and sometimes lack thereof, that drives the show and causes you to think. So, we'll dive back in here in a moment but just wanted to thank you for listening or watching. My name's Thomas Joyner and I'm a business coach here with Business on Purpose.  If you haven't seen this week's episode of Yellowstone, I am going to discuss a scene from it. So, if you need to pause this so you don't freak out at me and get upset for spoiling a 30-second scene… that's on you. At the end of this past episode, Jimmy, one of the guys who's kind of being redeemed over the past several seasons. Going from meth addict to miserable stable hand, and now sent to Texas to learn how to be a cowboy, is at the end of a long workday.  The last conversation with his boss, they're sitting there watching someone work and he looks at Jimmy and says this. “Jimmy, if you really wanna be a cowboy… learn to rope.” So that night, Jimmy comes home to his little bedroom. Eats the plate of dinner left for him and notices a rope on the wall. He picks it up, walks outside and pulls the little fake bull into the yard, and starts practicing. As the scene progresses, it's daylight. First throw with the rope? A miss. Second, a miss. Third, and fourth, and fifth. All misses. This goes on for hours as it's late into the night…more and more and more misses. Until finally, the last shot is him roping the bull and pulling it tight. Now, what are we supposed to take from this?  What does some fictional former Meth head turned cowboy learning to rope have to do with you running your business? I think it's all about what work are you willing to do in private. What work are you willing to do when no one is watching? THAT… is the work that truly matters. That truly gives you a leg up.  In the scene with Jimmy, they zoom out and there's no one watching. No one encouraging him. It's just him. Because he knows deep down that the only way to be the cowboy he wants to be is to put in the reps. To put the work in. To do the stuff that's no fun and so far from any type of predictable success that it's frustrating and downright discouraging. So, what work are you willing to put in that no one may ever know that you do? Is it taking the time out of your week to pour over your books, your numbers, to make sure you're making wise choices?  Is it the hard work of recording your systems and processes to be able to train your team in a repeatable and accountable way? Maybe it's getting in to work before anyone knows you're there to map out the day and logistically save your business money by getting everything organized. Or maybe you, like Jimmy, just need to put in the technical reps to get better at your craft. To take rep after rep after rep knowing that there is no shortcut to success. I think if I could take something from this scene, it's that there's no shortcut to success. No get rich scheme out there. There are businesses out there promising that you'll crush it if you'll follow this 5 step program. It's all fake! There is no shortcut. You have to pay the price and put in the reps. But here's the good news. The encouragement in all of this. One day instead of stringing together one success, it will be two. And then three. And then onward and upward. I'll never forget the story of Kobe Bryant before a scrimmage at the Olympics in 2008. He called his trainer at 4:15 am and asked him to come to the gym with him. Even though they had a noon scrimmage. So, they got in a 90-minute workout and Kobe told the trainer, he could head out if he wanted to. The trainer left, went and got a few hours of sleep before the scrimmage and when he got back to the gym, he went up to Kobe to encourage him on a great workout that morning. “Great job Kobe!” Kobe just looked at him and said, “Huh?” “Great job this morning. What time did you get back to the gym?” Kobe just laughed. “I actually stayed here. I wanted to make 500 jumpers from the corner before I stopped and then just decided to make 800 instead.” Kobe, a guy who was born with more talent than probably anyone, realized the value of putting in the reps while no one was watching. He didn't just put up 800 shots, but actually MADE 800 corner 3s BEFORE a scrimmage to make sure he was prepared. Because here's what Kobe knew… and what Jimmy is in the process of learning in Yellowstone. You don't rise to the challenge. That's a myth. You fall to the level of your preparation. What are you doing when no one is watching to raise your level of preparation to a place where everyone else notices when it's time to perform?  That's the important question. Have a great day everyone!

There's a hit show out right now called Yellowstone, and while I can't fully endorse it due to there being quite a bit of language and adult content, there have been some amazing quotes that have caused me to think. So... for the next several weeks I'm going to dive into some of these quotes and talk through their application to business and life. Good afternoon friends, Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here.  Ok, so why Yellowstone? Why pick a show that's basically a Wild West version of a soap opera? Instead of sarcastic words, using guns... Well, Because all of life is learning. And I feel like in watching it, I'm learning and using this stuff to make sure I'm not off-axis in any area of my life. That's why one of our core values here at BoP is Relentless learning. Because in every situation in life we want to listen first, process, and then learn and implement from that. So that's what we're going to do today. So... before the quote, some backstory in case you haven't watched it. Kayce, one of the main characters is haunted by his past and is trying to save his marriage. He takes a new job as livestock commissioner in helping the rural farmers and cattle ranchers in any way possible. He comes home one afternoon and his wife looks at him and says this. “You really love this new job don't you?” Kayce's response is what struck me. “I feel like for the first time I'm fighting for people. I like having somebody to fight for rather than something. When you fight for a thing, the thing doesn't care if you win or lose because the thing ain't alive. But when you fight for people, they care.” How powerful is that? “When you fight for people, they care.” I wonder what you're fighting for? When you look out over the next several years of business, what is it you want? And if you get it, can hold onto it, in your hands... do you think looking back that it will make you happy? Will you be satisfied? Or will you just kick the can further down the road knowing you missed the mark? Here's the interesting thing we've seen over the past several years. Money can't be that object. History is littered with people who made it financially and they are just as miserable today as they were 10 years ago. We have seen numerous businesses “make it”... doing more business than they ever thought and bringing home life-changing money. But... if the relationships in their business aren't sound, if all is not well at home, if their marriage is struggling, it may help, but it doesn't satisfy. Look at shows like Shark Tank. These billionaires sit in on these presentations just trying to add a few more millions to their portfolio because all they know how to do is add more. What if we flipped the script and started chasing after what we really want. And that's healthy relationships and equipping people.  Because you never sit with someone at their death bed and they say…”I wish I'd made more money in my life.” Or, “I wish I'd worked 5 more hours a week.” No! That never happens. People always wish they'd spent more time with the ones they loved most and invested in the people around them. So, what does that look like practically? Is it sitting down with your employees and hearing them out? Figuring out what their dreams are and help them achieve them? Is it planning some team days where you do speed dating or team day at the go-kart track to promote some laughter and community? Is there some serious work that needs to be done on the culture of your business so that your team knows you care about them? Do you forget birthdays/anniversaries, do you acknowledge big wins, and celebrate hard work? Or is your team just punching in and punching out, just waiting for the next Friday afternoon or next week-long holiday? You spend too much time at work to NOT invest in the people around you. That's why I love that quote, money, products, your business, it doesn't care if you win or lose... it's just a thing. But people... PEOPLE always care. So start fighting for the right things. So that years from now, you can look back and realize you were working for the right stuff all that time. So that when you see people succeed and success is lying in the palm of your hand you won't be wishing you fought for something else. People care if you fight for them... Man, that's good. Have a great week everyone!

There's a hit show out right now called Yellowstone, and while I can't fully endorse it due to there being quite a bit of language and adult content, there have been some amazing quotes that have caused me to think. So... for the next several weeks I'm going to dive into some of these quotes and talk through their application to business and life. Good afternoon friends, Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here.  Ok, so why Yellowstone? Why pick a show that's basically a Wild West version of a soap opera? Instead of sarcastic words, using guns... Well, Because all of life is learning. And I feel like in watching it, I'm learning and using this stuff to make sure I'm not off-axis in any area of my life. That's why one of our core values here at BoP is Relentless learning. Because in every situation in life we want to listen first, process, and then learn and implement from that. So that's what we're going to do today. So... before the quote, some backstory in case you haven't watched it. Kayce, one of the main characters is haunted by his past and is trying to save his marriage. He takes a new job as livestock commissioner in helping the rural farmers and cattle ranchers in any way possible. He comes home one afternoon and his wife looks at him and says this. “You really love this new job don't you?” Kayce's response is what struck me. “I feel like for the first time I'm fighting for people. I like having somebody to fight for rather than something. When you fight for a thing, the thing doesn't care if you win or lose because the thing ain't alive. But when you fight for people, they care.” How powerful is that? “When you fight for people, they care.” I wonder what you're fighting for? When you look out over the next several years of business, what is it you want? And if you get it, can hold onto it, in your hands... do you think looking back that it will make you happy? Will you be satisfied? Or will you just kick the can further down the road knowing you missed the mark? Here's the interesting thing we've seen over the past several years. Money can't be that object. History is littered with people who made it financially and they are just as miserable today as they were 10 years ago. We have seen numerous businesses “make it”... doing more business than they ever thought and bringing home life-changing money. But... if the relationships in their business aren't sound, if all is not well at home, if their marriage is struggling, it may help, but it doesn't satisfy. Look at shows like Shark Tank. These billionaires sit in on these presentations just trying to add a few more millions to their portfolio because all they know how to do is add more. What if we flipped the script and started chasing after what we really want. And that's healthy relationships and equipping people.  Because you never sit with someone at their death bed and they say…”I wish I'd made more money in my life.” Or, “I wish I'd worked 5 more hours a week.” No! That never happens. People always wish they'd spent more time with the ones they loved most and invested in the people around them. So, what does that look like practically? Is it sitting down with your employees and hearing them out? Figuring out what their dreams are and help them achieve them? Is it planning some team days where you do speed dating or team day at the go-kart track to promote some laughter and community? Is there some serious work that needs to be done on the culture of your business so that your team knows you care about them? Do you forget birthdays/anniversaries, do you acknowledge big wins, and celebrate hard work? Or is your team just punching in and punching out, just waiting for the next Friday afternoon or next week-long holiday? You spend too much time at work to NOT invest in the people around you. That's why I love that quote, money, products, your business, it doesn't care if you win or lose... it's just a thing. But people... PEOPLE always care. So start fighting for the right things. So that years from now, you can look back and realize you were working for the right stuff all that time. So that when you see people succeed and success is lying in the palm of your hand you won't be wishing you fought for something else. People care if you fight for them... Man, that's good. Have a great week everyone!