0:00

I'm David Grosso and you're listening to Follow

0:02

the Profit. Today,

0:09

I'm going to feature a very interesting LinkedIn

0:11

connection I have. I follow him

0:14

and his business called Predictable Profits.

0:16

His name is Charlie Gaudet. He's new

0:18

Hampshire base and he's just getting over

0:21

COVID just in time for recording.

0:23

How you doing, Charlie, I'm

0:25

doing fantastic. I'm happy

0:27

to be here. Thank you. Yeah.

0:30

So, how did you get started as an entrepreneur? I

0:32

saw that this week the founder of

0:34

Netflix said, Oh my goodness, being

0:36

an entrepreneur is something that we make out

0:38

to be pretty glamorous, but it's really not well,

0:42

I mean, in a sense I can understand

0:44

why they say it's not glamorous. I

0:47

say that because um and working

0:50

with thousands of entrepreneurs over

0:52

the last decade. When I asked

0:54

him, hey, why did you become an entrepreneur, most people will

0:56

say, in the beginning,

0:58

I did it for freedom, uh,

1:01

and I also did it to make more money. Yet

1:04

the first year of running a business, they

1:06

generally are working more hours than they have

1:09

ever worked a day in their life, typically

1:11

by multiple of two. And then

1:14

in terms of money. Yet the money doesn't

1:16

come until later. So ultimately

1:19

it does become ah, it

1:22

becomes almost a pursuit of passion.

1:25

And you asked me a question, why did

1:27

it or how did I become an entrepreneur? And people

1:30

do things either at a desperation

1:33

or inspiration. Um

1:36

for me, it was a little bit of both. My I

1:38

started my first business at the age

1:40

of four and selling

1:43

artwork to my neighbor. And the reason why I started my

1:45

business is because my dad was an entrepreneur.

1:48

He worked every waking hour of every day,

1:51

and when I did see him,

1:53

he would say, kid, if you ever want to make something and stuff,

1:56

you've got to start your own business. And

1:58

so, trying to get my

2:00

dad's affection, I

2:02

started a business so that when I did see him, I'd

2:04

be like, hey, Dad, look at me. And

2:07

I guess Freud would say, forty years

2:10

later, here I am still trying to, you

2:12

know, fight for my father's you know, affection

2:15

still. So

2:18

yeah, So that sounds

2:20

pretty interesting. Charlie age four

2:23

and a family tradition actually

2:25

not really out of the ordinary for entrepreneurs.

2:28

Right. You either come from a family that has

2:30

entrepreneurship and its DNA, or you don't.

2:32

And it seems like you're the former.

2:36

Yeah, I mean, um, I definitely.

2:39

I came from a family of

2:42

entrepreneurs and I very

2:44

quickly learned what I liked about

2:47

entrepreneurship and what I didn't

2:49

like about entrepreneurship, which

2:52

afforded me the ability of perspective.

2:54

So as I begin to

2:57

create my own business, I had certain

3:00

negotiables that I made sure that

3:02

I had in in my

3:05

life so that I didn't um

3:07

make some of the same sort

3:10

of mistakes that I witnessed through throughout

3:12

my family. So

3:15

predictable profits, what does that mean?

3:18

Our profits ever? Predictable? Charlie. That's

3:22

a great question, right, Well, you

3:24

know it just to some extent,

3:27

I want to say, yes, it's and predictable

3:29

profits is more about creating sustainable

3:31

growth. Uh. A

3:33

lot of companies, when you look at

3:36

their revenue, you're gonna see a

3:38

some month's or feasts, some months are famine

3:41

that there's a lot of rollercoaster

3:43

type of scenarios that go on from

3:45

either one week to the next or or one

3:48

month to the next. And that's usually

3:50

symptomatic of a company that has built

3:53

their business being too reliant on word

3:55

of mouth and referrals that they're

3:57

not thinking in terms of scalability,

4:00

uh, in building multiple different profits centers

4:02

into their business, and so predictable

4:04

profits is all about eliminating

4:06

the the ups and

4:08

downs, focusing more on predictable

4:12

and consistent growth from one month to the next,

4:14

as well as that sustainability

4:17

that doesn't seem like something you hear in business

4:19

these days. We tend to focus on the quarterly report,

4:21

the little sugar rushes, like even Corporate

4:24

America doesn't really practice that predictable

4:26

profitability. They just kind of fly

4:29

by the seat of their pants every quarter. Yeah,

4:32

I see that, and you

4:34

know in some cases, actually, uh,

4:37

I do think that a

4:39

small business owner, if they were to think more

4:42

like a larger business, it

4:44

would serve them better.

4:47

I say that, um

4:49

with context because as

4:51

a small business owner, the only person

4:54

that we're generally being held

4:56

accountable to is ourselves or

4:58

maybe our significant and so

5:01

we'll set goals and will

5:03

say, look, this is what I want to do. But

5:05

then when we don't hit our goal,

5:07

we're like, oh, well, there's no consequence.

5:10

But when you look at some of the more

5:13

more larger companies, like the uh,

5:16

the public companies, a public

5:18

company will set their quarterly

5:21

objectives UH in events

5:24

and they do that for the investors to set expectations.

5:27

But should they fail to meet their

5:30

expectations, then there's

5:32

a consequence, and usually there's a gap down

5:34

in price, and if it's real

5:36

bad, then there could be a change of leadership and management

5:38

and so forth, and so it becomes really um

5:41

consequential. So when

5:44

we're working with our clients over our predictable

5:46

profits, one of the things that we do is we ask

5:48

them what is going to be your goal

5:51

in the next quarter, what is your goal over the course

5:53

of the next year, and we get

5:56

their permission to hold them accountable

5:58

towards achieving that goal, and we want

6:00

them to envision in their minds

6:02

that there's going to be a consequence

6:05

whatever that might be if

6:07

you fail to meet that goal that

6:10

you know, now you're reporting to somebody

6:12

else. And some of our clients have gone

6:14

so far as to say, actually,

6:16

I want to feel a consequence, So let's

6:18

put together a you know, a plan

6:21

for what that would be. In for some people it's

6:23

a you know, contribution to a charity

6:25

of our choice or whatever that might be. UM,

6:29

but there is that level of accountability

6:31

that a small business owner once

6:34

that they they say

6:37

that they're gonna do what they're gonna do and they follow through

6:39

on It also kind of helps them get

6:41

over to that next level, which which is important.

6:43

We live in an era

6:45

of big business, and it seems like COVID

6:48

killed a lot of small businesses, but small

6:50

business is the big job

6:52

engine in this country, and of course ground

6:55

zero for ingenuity, innovation,

6:57

and so much more. What can we do

7:00

to compete as a small business in a world

7:02

where bigger is better? Well,

7:06

um, I may actually even

7:10

push back a little and suggests that may be

7:12

small is better. Um big

7:15

has more resources. We know that to

7:17

get to a goal, it's actions plus resources

7:19

equal coal and so big has more resources

7:21

and that can weather the storms typically a little

7:23

better. But small is more agile

7:26

and they can adapt and evolve very

7:29

very quickly. COVID crushed

7:31

a lot of small businesses, not because

7:34

that they were small, but it had

7:36

to do with the fact that they had to be more innovative

7:39

in in their approach um

7:41

because the limited resources in

7:44

many areas. Actually, COVID

7:46

was one of the biggest gifts and benefits

7:49

to the small business world and

7:52

usually started by an understanding

7:54

that in a type

7:57

of pivotal moment, and

7:59

that's what was COVID. There

8:01

was an inflection point in twenty.

8:03

In my lifetime, there's been foreign inflection points

8:07

two thousand, two thousand one, two thousand and eight, and then

8:09

COVID, So I guess that would have been the fifth inflection point.

8:12

We're faced with four decisions. Decision

8:15

number one has changed the message to meet the market.

8:17

Decision number two changed the market to meet

8:19

the message. Decision number three changed both

8:22

the message in the market, or decision number

8:24

four do nothing, cross your fingers, sit in the

8:26

corner, close your eyes, and hope things

8:28

change. If you look

8:30

at the companies that struggled and that suffered,

8:33

and in those are

8:35

the ones that chose option number four. Those

8:39

other companies that said, you know what, we're

8:41

going to change the message to meet the current

8:44

market, or we're gonna change the market to meet the

8:46

current message, those adopted

8:48

and they and they tend to thrive.

8:51

We have a client in the travel industry.

8:54

His largest client doing hundreds

8:56

of millions of dollars a year, or as all just competitor

8:58

doing hundreds of millions at all a year, went out of business.

9:01

Within three weeks he had a billion

9:03

dollar UM. He

9:05

had another competitor that got absorbed by a

9:07

billion dollar company. But

9:09

yet our client

9:11

quickly changed his message to meet

9:13

the market and ended up having record KPIs

9:16

from one week to the next. In December

9:18

of at a point when he

9:21

couldn't physically even put people

9:23

on a plane because most of his travel was international,

9:26

he had four percent more

9:29

ACoM sales than he did the

9:32

year prior. So how

9:34

the only way you can justify that is

9:36

not saying, oh, COVID handed you

9:39

an opportunity on the silver platter. Ors No,

9:41

he became more strategic, and

9:43

you can find that in the restaurant business. You can find

9:45

that among the heaviest, hardest hit industries

9:48

is just changing their approach. And that

9:50

that if there's one thing people can take out

9:52

of COVID, it's understanding how quickly they

9:54

need to adapt and evolve. But

9:57

a lot of times in these inflection points, it's

9:59

not just busy this. We have to change our personal lives

10:01

too, and it seems like people either fail miserably

10:04

or thrive more than ever. Yeah,

10:08

it's true, um, And

10:10

actually, if excuse

10:13

me, and speaking of COVID, I

10:15

just got over it. Hence you have to

10:18

apologize or I'm apologizing

10:20

for my coughing um.

10:23

But a lot of that

10:25

is mindset too. So

10:28

when COVID hit, I'll let readily

10:31

admit that everything happened

10:33

so quickly and unexpectedly

10:36

that right away I had that that gasp, like

10:39

like what's going to happen? And

10:41

immediately I had

10:44

to ask myself this question over and

10:46

over again, why is now the best

10:48

time in the world for me to be in business? Why is now

10:50

the best time in the world for me to be in business? And

10:53

I continued to ask myself that over

10:55

and over again and still until I started

10:57

creating this plan. And then we did

10:59

this same thing for our clients, Why is

11:01

now the best time in the world for you to be in business?

11:04

And they started thinking differently and the opportunities

11:07

and whatnot, so that

11:10

it created a lot of stress,

11:13

a lot of turmoil and whatnot because

11:15

it was unexpected and we didn't know what to

11:17

do next. But as we changed

11:19

our mindset and we saw the challenge is

11:21

an opportunity, it really did

11:24

sort of fulfill it itself and

11:26

and create opportunity

11:29

for many well.

11:32

It seems like you're still getting over COVID there.

11:34

Did you have a breakthrough case or did you choose

11:36

not to get vaccinated? And what happened after

11:38

you got COVID? Well, great

11:40

question. So I actually

11:43

my doctor had recommended that I

11:46

wait for one of the vaccines that were

11:48

on trial, and so I

11:50

figured, hey, I live in Hampshire. I mean

11:52

the cases are real low, that's risk

11:55

worth taking. And clearly it

11:58

didn't work out as I at planned.

12:01

Um, So I did end up getting COVID. My

12:03

whole family got covid um

12:05

and it was stuff. It was two weeks of

12:09

really being ineffective inside

12:11

of the organization because I, you

12:14

know, I had a fever every day for two weeks, a

12:16

lot of heavy coughing. Couldn't really lead

12:19

meetings and so forth. Um.

12:22

That being said, there,

12:26

one of the blessings that came

12:28

out of this is that we had

12:31

a dry run ahead of time. And

12:34

that dry run was actually inspired

12:37

by a friend of mine who's the CEO

12:40

of a multi multibillion dollar

12:42

organization, and

12:44

her and I were sitting down at dinner one time and she says

12:46

to me, I'm taken off. I gotta

12:48

go. I'm going to France for a couple of weeks. And

12:52

I said, Wow, with everything

12:54

going on in the market and whatnot, I'm actually surprised

12:57

that you're taking off for

13:00

for two weeks. She says, I'm

13:02

taking off and completely disconnecting. And

13:05

I said, wow, how how

13:07

has that happened? And she

13:09

said it is a prerequisite

13:12

in an organization. Anybody, once

13:14

they reach a certain level, they have to take off

13:16

and they have to completely disconnect for two weeks.

13:19

Failing to do so will result in the mediate termination.

13:23

And I said, well, interesting, why

13:26

and she said, because it ensures that the

13:28

company isn't dependent on any one

13:31

person in the organization, and that when

13:33

you take off for two weeks, very quickly

13:35

you begin to see as an organization where

13:38

the dependencies are, where there may be gaps

13:40

in the systems and the processes, and how you have

13:42

to fix it in order to make sure

13:44

that the company can move smoothly when

13:47

each individual is for whatever reason removed

13:49

from the company. So wow, that's genius.

13:52

So then an our organization, I

13:56

was really impressed by that, and

13:59

so I really started to wander

14:01

that in our own organization. So

14:04

um, with my leadership

14:06

team, we tell them when you go away on

14:08

vacation, You go away

14:11

and don't check in if we need

14:13

you, you know, please, you

14:15

know, respond to ours your cell phone and

14:17

blahl blah, but please don't check in.

14:20

For the same reason, we need to see where

14:22

the systems and the processes ultimately

14:24

breakdown, where we need to improve it so

14:27

that the company isn't dependent on you. And

14:29

earlier this year in June, I took off to Hawaii

14:32

for two weeks, and my

14:36

removal from the business

14:38

in Hawaii was the dry run

14:40

that we needed to make sure

14:43

that as nobody

14:46

knew, I was going to get COVID, of course, but when

14:49

I ended up getting COVID, I

14:52

if there was one thing I didn't have to stress about,

14:54

it was the business. All I had to worry about was

14:56

taking care of myself and my family because

14:59

the business is able to then run without

15:02

me, because we've already gone through that dry

15:04

run process. And

15:06

so for all the business owners listening

15:09

right now, I cannot emphasize

15:11

the importance of that enough. You

15:13

know, in the beginning, it might be try taking

15:16

off for a long weekend and

15:18

seeing what will happen if you take off for a long weekend.

15:20

For many business owners. The company is so dependent

15:22

on them, the idea of taking off for a long weekend

15:25

is almost impossible. But

15:27

try taking off for a long weekend that means don't check your

15:29

email, don't respond to phone calls and whatnot.

15:32

Then extended a little bit longer, you know,

15:34

try taking off for you know, several

15:36

more days. Then take off for a week, and

15:39

then the ultimate is, you know, take off for

15:41

two weeks and and see how well

15:43

the business grows thrives

15:46

without you and what opportunities exist

15:48

to improve the systems and the processes. Charlie,

15:51

I don't feel like I've done that since completely

15:56

checked out. I think the last time I completely

15:58

checked out was when I went to Cuba. And as you

16:00

know, internet is very limited in Cuba,

16:02

and you know, it's a repressive country. So

16:05

I feel like I need to do exactly what you're

16:07

saying. Yeah,

16:10

you know, UM, I I totally

16:12

get that. It took me many many years

16:14

before I started doing that,

16:17

UM and frankly

16:21

almost embarrassing me, embarrassing

16:24

for me to admit UM.

16:26

But the first time I really disconnected

16:29

and took time off it was because I was quote

16:31

unquote fired by an employee and

16:35

he said to me, I was

16:38

in the Cayman Islands and I was talking to one

16:40

of my employees and

16:42

I was saying goodbye to my family, and he says, where's your

16:44

family going. I said, the heading out

16:46

to the turtle farm. And he says, why are you going? And

16:49

I said, well, I gotta get some work done. And

16:51

he said, with all due respect, you

16:54

need to go with your family. And I said what does that mean?

16:56

And he said, you're not doing us any favors. See

16:59

with you working the way that you're working,

17:01

what's happening is a couple of things. Number

17:03

One, the others might not tell you this,

17:05

but I'll tell you. It makes it feel like. It makes

17:07

us feel like you don't trust us. You

17:09

don't trust us to to run

17:12

the business while you're gone. Number

17:14

Two, you're not giving us the opportunity

17:16

to prove to you that we can do this and

17:18

to step up, So that's another issue.

17:21

Thirdly, you're making the company to dependent on

17:23

you. Everything that you teach your clients and whatnot.

17:25

You're not taking your own advice, and

17:28

you know that's not helping us in the long

17:30

run. Um And he goes forth.

17:33

When I take off, I take off and I disconnect

17:35

when I go on vacation. But I

17:38

can't help but feel guilty, feel

17:40

guilty knowing that I can take off

17:42

and go on vacation, but you can't. And

17:45

he said, so, he says,

17:47

you've always asked me to be honest with

17:49

you, So do you trust

17:52

me? And I said I do. And he said, then,

17:54

with all due respect, you're fired. Please

17:57

go with your family, disconnect

18:01

and give me the opportunity to prove

18:03

to you that not only

18:05

can I run this business while you're gone, but when you come

18:07

back, it will be better off having

18:10

had you left. And

18:13

I was in such shock by

18:15

the brass that this individual

18:18

had by such a frank conversation.

18:21

But my family was out in the car and they

18:23

getting ready to take off. I had to make a split second

18:26

decision, so I said, fine, uh

18:28

you you got my word, and I shut

18:31

my computer down. I ran down, met

18:33

my family, we went off to the turtle farm,

18:36

and he was right. When I came back

18:38

from vacation, to my surprise,

18:40

the business was actually better off having

18:43

had me gone. And then

18:45

when I was there, it was really a remarkable

18:47

thing. I think people inherently they

18:50

want to they

18:52

want to prove to you that they're capable

18:55

of a lot more, and

18:57

it really gives him that opportunity to thrive.

19:09

Ventures tend to take the shape of their leader,

19:11

right, But at a certain point, the leader has

19:13

the whole venture hijacked according

19:15

to his or her you know, personality.

19:18

How do we do that? Because you know, a

19:20

lot of times the leader is the reason

19:23

everything exists. But at a certain point,

19:25

like what you encountered, you

19:27

might be the limiting factor. We

19:30

almost always are the limiting

19:32

factor. Um.

19:34

You know, a lot of the companies that

19:37

we work with, they usually get stuck around

19:39

that three million dollar level. One to

19:41

three million is sort of like that that

19:44

sweet spot where many of them get stuck. And

19:47

one of the reasons for that. I mean, there's

19:49

multiple reasons, but one of them is

19:51

that, excuse me,

19:54

um, the entrepreneur

19:57

has this mantra that only I

19:59

can do it. You

20:01

know, only I can do it, Only I can do it. So they take

20:03

on so much but actions plus resources equal

20:05

goal, and so they can only take on so many actions.

20:09

Um. Eventually,

20:11

though, to get beyond that,

20:13

they you know, you get

20:16

you get stuck in your being. You're forced to

20:18

let go and as

20:20

you're forced to let go more and more and more. You

20:22

begin to realize that the story you've

20:24

been telling yourself for a long time only I can

20:26

do it is is actually just that story

20:28

and not real Probably

20:31

the most eye open the example

20:33

for me, because we still wrestle through

20:35

that. Just you know, I look at I've been in this business

20:37

for ten years. There's definitely only certain things

20:39

that I can do. Were so I thought. We

20:42

recently brought on an intern,

20:45

and there's a certification

20:47

program that I'm doing and building, and there's

20:49

certain elements of the certification program that I'm

20:52

like, this is gonna require

20:54

me to be involved

20:56

in that. But given the limitations

20:58

of my time, I decided, well, I'm gonna ask

21:00

the intern to do a part of this, and even

21:02

if he only does of the heavy

21:05

lifting, that's okay because

21:07

it will save my time and I can do the remainder.

21:11

And when he delivered that his

21:14

output back to me, I looked at this and

21:16

I ate the biggest slice of humble pie if

21:18

I had in a long time. And that's because

21:21

what he actually delivered to me was better

21:23

than I would have done myself. That's

21:25

great, that's actually good for you. It

21:28

was phenomenal. But you

21:31

know that the story that nobody

21:33

could do it as well as me um

21:36

was just the humbling reminder that

21:39

there's actually not as much as we

21:41

think that

21:45

is really unique to us. You

21:48

know, there's a small part, but that small

21:50

part is what makes the business

21:52

awesome, and that is what's unique to you. But

21:55

if you could just focus only in and on that small

21:57

part, like Steve Jobs with Apple, like

22:00

Steve was a visionary

22:02

that was unique to him,

22:05

but the majority

22:07

of the stuff that happened throughoutout

22:09

Apple was stuff

22:11

that other people did and created

22:13

and so forth, but it was

22:16

all aligned with his vision. Walt Disney the same

22:18

thing. Everybody keeps talking about

22:20

how it all started with a mouse, right, Well,

22:23

Walt Disney had a vision, a

22:26

vision for disney World, and that was

22:28

a small part, but that was a huge part

22:31

of the success of the organization. We just have to

22:33

really know what is that small part that

22:36

is going to make that big difference and be willing

22:38

to empower the team to fulfill

22:40

that that vision and that that

22:42

part that's really unique to us. So

22:45

you work with a lot of entrepreneurs, what exactly

22:48

is vision? So

22:54

what exactly is vision? Then well

22:56

there's um

23:01

the who Well. I

23:04

think the best example was

23:06

described by a good friend of mine named Ari Mizel,

23:09

and he describes us in the form of

23:11

a metaphor, and

23:14

he said, running a business as much like that of

23:17

a train. And he said,

23:20

at the lowest level of the organization,

23:22

we have our cogs. And

23:24

the cogs are the daily,

23:27

repetitive activities that go on over

23:29

and over and over again that takes the

23:31

train and helps the train move up

23:34

and down the tracks. They

23:36

generally require the lowest level

23:39

of skill, can

23:41

very oftentimes be systematized,

23:43

process driven, sometimes automated,

23:46

But those the cogs. Once

23:49

you start to move up a level, then you

23:51

have the engine. The

23:53

engine is has

23:55

to It drives the business forward. It

23:57

drives the cogs, so

24:00

provides management, it provides

24:02

structure, It drives

24:04

the cogs forward. They take a higher The engine

24:06

has a higher level of skill uh

24:09

in ability, but the engine, just like the

24:11

cogs, still have to make sure that

24:13

they show up every day and that they

24:16

are on the tracks. The

24:19

next level beyond the engine

24:21

is the engineer. The

24:23

engineer has an even higher level of skill.

24:26

The engineer can run multiple

24:29

engines at the same time, I'm sure you've

24:31

seen the trains with you know, multiple

24:33

different engines in the front, maybe a couple in the

24:35

back that are pushing the train. The

24:37

engineer is the one that, you

24:39

know, so manages not only a bunch of the different

24:41

engines, but it's like, all right, we have to be here

24:43

by a certain time. I'm going to make sure

24:46

that we reach that goal of being

24:48

there at the certain at a certain time,

24:50

that we have enough fuel that we're not going

24:52

to hit anything along the way, that the passengers

24:54

are going to be safe, and so forth. And

24:57

that's the engineer. But then at

24:59

the high level that would

25:01

be the visionary. And the

25:03

visionary is the one that ends

25:06

up they can run multiple trains all

25:09

at the same time. And the vision

25:11

area is the one that envisions

25:13

the path of where the trains are gonna go,

25:16

and the and the direction and

25:18

and so forth. And and that's the visionary,

25:22

just like you know, Walt Disney and

25:25

uh and Steve Jobs like they just had they had

25:27

the vision of where it was going to go.

25:30

But if you look at business

25:32

owners, we

25:34

start at the very beginning of our company

25:37

in that visionary role. Big time. We

25:39

have a dream, we have a vision, we have a passion,

25:42

we know we're getting into business because we're

25:44

going to do this. And then what

25:46

happens is, as you start taking on more clients

25:48

and more customers, you have to fulfill

25:50

in those orders, and so you start

25:52

doing more cog based

25:54

activity and engine based

25:57

activity, and you start spending

25:59

more and more time working in the business and

26:01

less and less time as a visionary.

26:04

And then you look at the companies that tend to

26:07

get to about that one to three million year and you

26:09

ask the engineer, how much time do you do you

26:11

spend, you know, doing strategic

26:13

thinking and developing new profit centers

26:15

and forming new relationships and new partnerships

26:18

whatnot. You're gonna find it's actually a very limited

26:20

point of time because most of their time

26:23

is actually spent on fulfilling orders

26:26

or their founder led sales, meaning

26:28

that the founder is the only one making the sales

26:30

right now, or involved

26:33

in hiring and managing

26:35

and customer relations and so forth.

26:37

And so they're spending too much time as a

26:40

cog or an engine little

26:43

time even as an engineer, and

26:45

that also can limit growth in a very

26:48

substantial manner. Yeah,

26:51

so it's kind of like this balance, right, because

26:53

We do start off with that vision when you first get

26:55

a business off the ground, but then we get kind of stuck

26:58

on the day to day, right, and this

27:00

whole thing that you're describing, right, you think you're

27:02

the only one that could do it. You don't trust

27:04

others to do it, and furthermore,

27:07

you're worried about seating that power because

27:10

you're back to the fallacy, I'm the

27:12

only one that can do this. That's

27:15

right, That's absolutely right. And

27:18

you see this across all your clients because you work

27:20

with a lot of entrepreneurs who face a lot

27:22

of these same problems. And let's face it, Charlie,

27:24

a lot of entrepreneurs feel like they're alone.

27:28

Yeah. I

27:30

think most entrepreneurs

27:33

have this feeling of being

27:36

either misunderstood um

27:39

or that they are the only ones

27:41

that are going through this, or nobody would

27:43

really understand their problem.

27:46

And it's funny because it

27:49

doesn't matters so much on

27:51

the level whether

27:53

or not we're working with somebody doing a million

27:55

dollars a year or we have clients doing hundreds

27:57

of millions of dollars a year um.

28:00

A lot of the same emotions and feelings,

28:03

concerns and worries are

28:05

are similar. So

28:08

what do you think small and medium sized businesses

28:10

should be doing right now in this environment? Wow?

28:15

That's a really really good question,

28:18

loaded question too. Um.

28:22

You know today

28:31

it's in

28:33

addition to what we

28:35

talked about earlier, which is making sure

28:37

that you know if you're going to meet them,

28:40

you may have to evolve the message to meet the market

28:43

and so forth. There

28:45

are three stages for creating

28:49

sustainable growth that

28:53

you know many times are overlooked. I think

28:55

the smaller the business, they tend to get involved

28:57

in this. You know, they're always chasing the latest

28:59

dr to g um

29:02

and you know they're always saying, you know,

29:04

I've tried this, now I'm gonna go on, I'm gonna

29:06

try this, and now I'm gonna go on, I'm gonna try this and

29:08

just hoping something sticks. I

29:11

just start to evolve as an entrepreneur and you

29:13

start realizing, oh my god, I feel like I've

29:15

tried everything. Now what

29:18

you start looking at those three stages

29:20

in those streets, three stages of first

29:23

optimization And

29:25

when I say optimization, you begin to

29:28

look at your business. You put

29:30

KPI s around the business so you fully understand

29:33

like what's working and what's not working

29:35

inside of my business right now. And

29:38

as you can understand what's working

29:40

and what's not working, and you've got that

29:42

clarity, clarity equals power, and it's a

29:45

lot easier for you to then start saying,

29:47

Okay, how do I do more of what's

29:49

already working and less of what's not working.

29:52

And while that might sound like super basic

29:56

to some extent, when people look at some of

29:58

the results that we've helped achieve for

30:01

other companies, you know, whether we've

30:03

taken them from a million to twenty

30:05

four million in three years, or

30:07

you know, we've even a smaller

30:10

company from two hundred and fifty thousand

30:12

to four point six million

30:14

within a year, and all those other you know,

30:16

fun things that we like to talk about, you

30:19

know, all the companies that we've taken on the INC five

30:21

thousand. We've done that by

30:23

starting with optimization. Because

30:26

when you just see what's working and you

30:28

put a little bit of fuel on what's

30:30

working, you can get results much

30:32

easier, much more efficiently than just

30:34

trying something new. But

30:37

as you turn your company in that file finally

30:40

to a machine using optimization, the next step

30:42

is systemization, where you

30:44

make sure you put systems and processes

30:47

around those things that are working inside

30:49

of the business, because,

30:51

as you know, when you're running a business, the

30:53

last thing that you need to be doing is taking on

30:55

more responsibility. And

30:58

when you look at a juggler, juggler might be able

31:00

to juggle ten balls in the year, but

31:03

what happens when they when

31:05

they drop one ball, what usually happens to

31:07

the rest of the balls? They all

31:09

drop, They all drop. It's weird

31:12

how that happens, but that's what

31:14

also happens as an entrepreneur.

31:16

We're juggling so many balls in the air, we

31:18

tend to think like, hey, look at me, this

31:21

is awesome. Look how busy I am. I'm doing

31:23

all these things. But you can only handle so much. And

31:25

eventually we start dropping a ball and

31:27

they all dropped, And so we

31:29

make sure that we put the systems and the processes

31:31

so that nothing drops, so

31:34

that the business can run less dependent on you

31:36

are a few key people, so that you're

31:38

generating more consistency or predictability

31:41

inside of your business. Then as you do that,

31:43

then that opens the door for the third phase, which

31:45

is innovation, and that innovation

31:48

is typically a brand new profit center

31:50

in the business. And if you look at the most

31:52

successful companies in the world, the most successful

31:55

companies in the world are generally building out one

31:57

new profit center per quarter. And

31:59

that profit center might be a

32:01

new partnership, the profit center

32:04

might be a new marketing funnel, a

32:06

new sales strategy, a new

32:08

product offering, whatever that might

32:10

be. And it allows you to continue

32:12

to grow and expand. And then as you go through

32:15

that innovation, then you start the cycle

32:17

all over again. And that's optimistic optimization,

32:20

systemization, and innovation. And

32:23

so today entrepreneurs really

32:25

do because we're busier

32:28

than ever before, we

32:30

need to take a take that time to say,

32:32

okay, let's identify what's

32:34

working, what's not working, let's optimize

32:36

it. It's put into systems and processes,

32:39

and then we can begin to innovate. So

32:43

what industries are you seeing really rapid

32:45

growth in right now? UM?

32:49

I mean, frankly, every

32:51

industry right now is

32:55

experiencing in a tremendous amount

32:57

of growth. I mean, even the industry

33:00

you wouldn't expect um,

33:02

I mean more travel, I guess is rebound, so

33:05

you would see that rebound. UM

33:08

agencies are crushing it right now. UM.

33:12

You know the

33:15

bigger reason. I'm having a

33:17

hard time actually telling you which industries would

33:19

would not be doing real well right

33:21

now. Um.

33:23

And the reason for

33:26

that actually comes down

33:28

to the fact that, you know, to

33:31

some degree you could argue that we're still in

33:33

a quote unquote bad economy.

33:36

Okay, and tell me more. I've

33:39

been interviewed in

33:41

the past where somebody's

33:43

quoted a mentioned in my book where I said

33:45

I love about economy and they're like, was

33:48

that a misprint? Like what does that mean?

33:50

You love a bad economy? And

33:54

and the thing is is in

33:56

a good economy,

33:59

people oftentimes think they're better than they

34:01

are. It's a lot easier to make

34:03

money, and you don't

34:05

have to be that strategic. And

34:07

the result of that is you tend to get a lot of inferior

34:10

competitors that cloud the marketplace,

34:13

and everybody's kind of screaming to

34:15

get the business, and some are making crazy

34:17

promises, and you know,

34:19

it becomes harder to run

34:21

a business in a really really good,

34:24

strong economy and a bad

34:26

economy on the on the contrary,

34:29

inferior competitors start to go

34:31

away and people

34:33

are still buying. But the biggest

34:35

differences that consumers are far more

34:37

discerning than they ever have

34:39

in the past. And so when

34:41

you're a strategic entrepreneur and

34:44

you can appeal to the more discerning customer,

34:47

making it clear as to why you're the better

34:49

option and why you're

34:51

a must have for doing business as opposed

34:54

to a nice to have, there's an

34:56

abundance of opportunity that's available

34:58

to you. And so,

35:01

um, when we look at

35:03

what's happening right now in twenty

35:06

and one, are consumers

35:08

are more discerning than they've ever been

35:10

throughout history. So

35:13

in two thousand nineteen, the average

35:15

consumer was looking at between twelve

35:18

and fourteen different sources of information

35:20

before making a buying decision. That's

35:22

in twenty nine and twenty,

35:25

that number went all the way up to seventeen. So

35:27

they started looking at seventeen different sources

35:30

of information before making a buying decision.

35:33

But in one that number then

35:35

leapt up to uh twenty

35:40

twenty seven different sources of information.

35:44

So think about that. That tells us that our

35:46

consumers of former discerning the buying

35:49

the people in their buying committee, you

35:52

know, who influences a buying decision that grew

35:54

in one. So

35:57

now, yes, there

35:59

are industries as a whole that are slower.

36:01

There are industries as a whole that are larger,

36:04

but there are micro pockets and every

36:07

single one of those industries that

36:09

are taking off like gangbusters.

36:12

And that's because they managed to appeal to

36:14

the discerning consumer. When

36:26

we turn on the TV, we hear about death

36:28

and destruction and unemployment

36:31

and the lack of opportunity. And you

36:33

know, especially people in my generation, Millennials

36:35

and younger gen Z, you know, we're

36:38

struggling to make it. This kind

36:40

of conflicts with what you're saying. Yeah,

36:43

it it, uh, it does. Actually,

36:46

I mean, look, when I

36:48

got covid, um

36:50

it was actually rather

36:52

disturbing. But when I got COVID, people

36:55

felt the need to tell me all

36:58

the people they knew who has who have eyed,

37:01

all the people they knew that were in their

37:03

twenties and they were in the hospital

37:05

on ventilators and

37:07

and all that other stuff, and

37:10

so as mentally strong as what I

37:12

like to think I am, I

37:14

started to express some doubt the symptoms

37:17

that I normally wouldn't have bat

37:19

an eye. Over All of a sudden, I'm sitting there

37:21

going, oh my god, you know, could

37:23

this be my moment? Like you

37:26

know how if this gets any worse, am I gonna

37:28

end up in the hospital. Like there's all these like concerns

37:30

and anxieties and whatnot. That happened because you hear

37:32

the narrative over and over again. And

37:35

I had this client that said to me, wait a minute,

37:38

Um, you've had a fever now every day for

37:40

the last twelve days. Yeah,

37:42

I have. And you're coughing up

37:44

a storm. Yeah I know you have, yus. Um,

37:47

you know your body is doing exactly what it should

37:50

be doing. Your immune system, you must obviously

37:52

have done a great job building that immune system.

37:54

You know, your immune system is strong, it's

37:58

it's doing well, like really, you

38:00

know, I want to hand it to you, a great job. And

38:02

that became a new story that I continued to

38:04

repeat, you know, to myself, which

38:06

about empowering and so forth. But

38:09

the people by and large

38:11

in the news, you know, it is

38:14

much more entertaining to talk about

38:16

death and destruction and all this

38:18

other stuff because that old saying misery likes

38:20

company. But the few

38:23

people that are doing really, really really

38:25

well, you know, it's

38:27

not as sexy or

38:30

or appealing, But it

38:32

is true that there are microcosms

38:34

that are doing awesome. And it really

38:36

comes down to the mindset. You know, one

38:40

of the things that I remember

38:42

thinking when I ran my podcast, or

38:44

you know, I still run my podcast, but how exciting

38:46

it is that I get the opportunity to interview some of

38:48

the brightest, smartest people on the planet. And

38:51

how exciting it's going to be to listen

38:53

to more strategies

38:55

and techniques and tips and this is gonna

38:58

be really great. Yeah. No

39:00

matter who I interview, when it

39:02

comes down to it, the

39:04

number one attribute

39:07

for their success

39:09

always his mindset, and

39:13

mindset is is everything. I

39:15

mean I wanted to I offered to

39:18

fly down and see Richard Branson and um

39:21

pay for you know, buy

39:23

him lunch. And I was paying my whole way

39:26

and the whole deal. I couldn't wait to meet

39:28

this guy. Unfortunately, it just didn't work out that

39:30

way, and all

39:33

because I was like, I can't wait to hear his secret.

39:36

But then the more I I

39:38

mean, I fortunately did hear Branson

39:40

talk with the more I studied

39:43

him for him too, it's the same thing as mindset.

39:47

Mindset just happens to be more

39:49

important than any single tips, strategy,

39:51

technique and so forth. And

39:54

if you believe it will happen, you'll begin to

39:56

see more reasons to justify how

39:58

it will happen. Well,

40:01

I got to meet Richard Branson. That's an interesting

40:04

story, you know, as a journalist.

40:07

Yeah, as a journalist, you get some rare

40:10

occasions when just weird things happened.

40:12

And you know, news journalists,

40:15

especially ones that cover entrepreneurship,

40:18

are not that common, believe it or not, especially

40:20

in the mainstream media. So I was invited

40:22

to go meet the entire Branson family

40:25

on a very snowy day and they had flown in

40:27

from the British Virgin Islands. Of course, the Bransons

40:29

live in the British Virgin Islands. And

40:32

honestly, to give you Richard

40:34

was great, but I was more impressed by his daughter,

40:36

Holly. It reminds me a lot,

40:38

Yes, reminds me a lot of you

40:41

know, just a higher version

40:43

of him. And I'm

40:45

sure he would be happy to hear me say that. You

40:48

know, a lot of times these entrepreneurs,

40:50

just like your father Charlie, pass on

40:52

their trade to their children. And I feel like

40:54

we're going to see a lot of big things from Holly,

40:57

who I believe is a better version of her father.

41:01

Wow, that is fascinating

41:04

yea, and that any father would

41:07

be would love to hear that

41:09

about about their children

41:11

too, So I'm sure he would be honored

41:13

and probably the best thing he would have heard all day

41:15

today if he if he could hear this interview.

41:19

Yeah, I mean it was great. The entire family was lovely,

41:21

and you know, it's really interesting to see how entrepreneurship

41:24

permeates family culture. And Holly's

41:26

husband seems like he's very involved as

41:28

well, and just the whole family

41:30

culture was fascinating, the way they view the

41:33

world and whatnot. And I believe you

41:35

were in that situation, you know, you're it runs

41:37

in your d n A. How are you passing

41:39

that on to your children? So,

41:43

uh, my son said

41:46

to me, this is actually just recently. My

41:48

son. By the way, his name is Branson, So

41:51

take a guess where what inspired his

41:53

name? Um?

41:56

So, uh my son said

41:58

to me earlier the summer, he

42:01

said, Dad, have you ever thought about what age you want

42:03

to retire? And

42:05

I said, Branson, if

42:08

you're my age and

42:10

I'm in my forties, So

42:14

if you're my age and

42:16

you're already looking forward to retirement,

42:19

you've already failed and

42:21

he said, what do you What

42:23

do you mean by that? I said,

42:25

you want to love what you're doing so much

42:29

that you want to continue

42:31

doing it over and over again, and

42:34

for so that work almost

42:36

feels like play. And

42:39

I had in my thirties,

42:42

I had a gentleman flew out to

42:45

meet me out in St. Thomas and

42:47

he said, I think we should

42:49

hold a retirement party for you. And

42:55

I said, I don't. I'm

42:57

not sure I'm following you, like, I'm

43:00

definitely not ready to retire. And

43:03

he says, yes, but

43:05

you have. And I

43:07

said, how do you figure I'm working

43:10

more hours than you

43:12

know? Or I haven't. I'm not working any lighter hours

43:15

rather, and he said, but

43:17

what strikes me as interesting is

43:20

you've said multiple times that you don't

43:22

work all day, that you

43:25

have the opportunity to play,

43:27

and that you get to play all day with your friends,

43:29

you get to play all day with your with

43:32

what you work, that you actually don't feel like you're working.

43:34

And I stopped and I thought about it, and I'm like, you're

43:36

right, I don't feel like I work

43:39

at all at any given point in

43:41

time. I really don't feel like that. The people

43:43

that I work with just so happened to be some

43:45

of my closest friends. My clients just

43:47

so happened to be some of my closest friends. And

43:50

So to get

43:52

back to your question in terms of how

43:55

am I going to inspire this with my kids?

43:57

You know, if they want to run their own business, that's awesome. In my

44:00

on already has his own business. Uh

44:02

it's called BCG Perspective, and it's a video

44:04

marketing company. He's a freshman in high school

44:06

and he's already had all these different clients and whatnot,

44:09

and he's he really, really really enjoys

44:11

it. My daughters

44:13

talk about running their own business, but they also

44:15

talk about working for somebody else. Either

44:18

way. The only thing that

44:21

that only guidance that I've

44:23

given them so far when it comes to a career

44:25

choice is whatever

44:28

it is, just make sure

44:30

it gives you energy, it

44:33

makes you excited about

44:36

about getting up in the morning, about working,

44:38

whatever that is, because no matter what

44:41

your career or what your businesses,

44:44

you're gonna hit rough spots, rough

44:46

spots that are gonna be so hard

44:49

that you're gonna want to quit more

44:52

than anything else that

44:55

you know that you're doing right now. But

44:58

it's at that moment that you

45:00

want to quit more than anything else, that you're

45:02

the closest you're ever going to be to success. But

45:05

what gets you through that moment

45:08

of wanting to quit is passion.

45:12

It's the love for what you do, because

45:15

you know, you obviously

45:17

look like you you love your job and

45:20

you're really really good at your job and whatnot.

45:23

And my guess is that even if I was

45:25

to write you a check for let's

45:27

say a hundred million dollars or whatever that is,

45:30

you might go and enjoy and you know, spend

45:33

a little money traveling the world and maybe

45:35

on neck Ro Island with Richard Branson and his family.

45:37

Right but at some point

45:40

you're going to get bored, and

45:43

then you may go back to what you're doing

45:45

right now because you're good at it and you love it and

45:47

it gets you energy, not

45:49

even for the money, but just because

45:52

you enjoy it. And

45:55

you know, that's ultimately what I want my

45:57

kids to think about is find a career

45:59

that they love so much that even if they were doing it

46:01

for free, they'd still do it. Well,

46:05

Charlie, that's a beautiful way to end. Where can we

46:07

learn more about predictable profits and your

46:09

career. I see you have a very active LinkedIn

46:12

page. That's where I found you. Where else

46:15

Well, UM, Predictable Profits

46:17

dot Com would be the best way for

46:19

for people to to learn more

46:22

about us. UM we

46:24

have a sign up of them. Want to join

46:26

and get some free daily business

46:28

coaching videos. You could do that right on the website of

46:30

Predictable Profits dot com.

46:32

UM. You know also learn more about

46:35

us on our podcast Beyond seven Figures

46:37

podcast or or my book, The

46:39

Predictable Profits Playbook. Well,

46:42

on that note, we're so happy that

46:44

you were done with COVID just

46:46

in time for this episode, and we look

46:48

forward to being in touch. Thank you so much. It's

46:50

been my pleasure. So

46:57

Charlie taught us that the number one

46:59

issue with running your business, and really

47:01

with all our personal pursuits, is yourself.

47:04

A lot of times we think we're irreplaceable.

47:07

Hint, hint, we're not. A

47:09

lot of times businesses and

47:11

organizations need to grow past their founder,

47:14

and sometimes getting out of the way is

47:16

the most important thing. I

47:18

also, something that stood out to me was that

47:21

even if you did write me a check for a hundred million dollars,

47:23

I probably would still be sitting here today,

47:25

I'm one of those people that really does enjoy my

47:28

work. And if you don't have that same

47:30

impulse when you think about your work, maybe

47:33

it's time to change jobs. Right now, the labor

47:35

market is really good. People around me are

47:37

all getting new jobs with relative

47:39

ease. So if you're not enjoying your job, maybe

47:42

it's time to do something else. The other

47:44

thing that really really stood out to me about Charlie's

47:46

interview was that this is a great

47:48

time to start a business. You really don't

47:51

hear that in the mainstream media. You really

47:53

hear about death, destruction

47:56

and lack of opportunity, especially

47:58

as it pertains to young folks, and

48:00

how big business is eating small businesses

48:03

lunch. Well, that doesn't seem to be the

48:05

case. And as Charlie mentioned, it's

48:07

about mindset. I think we all can

48:09

work on our mindset. A lot of times

48:11

we can't rise past the noise

48:14

and following the profit is about doing exactly

48:16

that, having the right mindset to

48:18

succeed, having the right mindset

48:21

to chart the future, and that's really

48:23

where it comes into being a visionary.

48:25

A lot of times, like Apple said famously,

48:28

we don't think differently. We just get

48:30

bogged down in the day to day

48:32

and really don't think about where we're going or

48:34

how we could grow what we're already

48:36

doing. Vision is something

48:38

that's lacking in today's world. The

48:41

past twenty years have been about

48:43

applying tried and true formulas

48:45

to nearly everything in this world,

48:48

and as we're seeing painfully

48:51

in politics, in business, and

48:53

in our culture, we desperately

48:55

need new ideas and new

48:58

models in order to charge away

49:00

forward. And that's what this podcast is all about,

49:03

trying to think differently, having vision,

49:05

and really trying to chart a brand new

49:07

future. And

49:11

thanks to all of you for joining me as we Follow

49:13

the Profit. I'd like to thank my hard working staff

49:15

for putting the show together. It's not an

49:17

easy task and really what

49:20

you're hearing is the result of a lot

49:22

of work behind the scenes. I'd also

49:24

like to thank our executive producers, Debbie

49:27

Myers and Nuke Gingrich. Follow

49:29

the Profit as a production of Gingridge three sixty

49:31

and I Heart Radio. For more podcast visit

49:33

the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

49:35

or wherever you get your podcasts. Part

49:42

of the Gingwich Network,