Loading summary
Transcript97 lines
- [00:00]
A
Sam.
- [00:35]
B
Welcome back. Business matters part of bni. Power of One. Tim Roberts with me, Michael Martin. How are you doing?
- [00:44]
A
It's been so long since we've spoken. I noticed you have a lot more gray hair.
- [00:49]
B
I'm wearing a hat. That's. It has been a minute. It's been a.
- [00:54]
A
And busy.
- [00:55]
B
It's been crazy. But it's. And I haven't even just generally put Ben podcasting, although I did record yesterday, not for this, but for the BNI official podcast that comes out in January, I think he said. So still recording. Just things get delayed on.
- [01:11]
A
Yeah.
- [01:12]
B
On the production end or what have you. Which has been a really cool experience. I don't know if I ever told you or if you're aware that. So he mentioned it when we recorded, I guess. I've been on his podcast the most out of anybody and I've now co hosted.
- [01:28]
A
This is Dr. Meisner.
- [01:29]
B
Yeah, the official BNI podcast.
- [01:31]
A
Yeah.
- [01:31]
B
I've co hosted eight episodes and now been on with him four or five more times after that. So it's like 12, 13, 14 times, which is kind of crazy and humbling. And so, yeah, so this one wasn't a code. This one was me and him talking. And for all those who have sent in questions, because I picked a question I get a lot of on the BNI side of, like how to engage longtime members. That's what we discuss. So keep your ears open for that one.
- [02:01]
A
Nice.
- [02:02]
B
But yeah, good to be back with you.
- [02:04]
A
Yeah, I know, I know you've had a ton going on. There's a lot more still going on. And it's. We're recording this a day before Thanksgiving. So that's going on.
- [02:11]
B
Yeah. Which is my favorite holiday I talked about. So first of all, Happy Thanksgiving to you and anybody listening. It's. Yeah. My favorite holiday ever. Because there's no expectations. It's for us. It's a very chilled, relaxed one. It's just me and my in laws, so there's only like seven of us. So it's not this big grand thing. I literally don't cook a single thing, which is awesome. I bring a nice bottle of wine. That's about it. And I go home with a full turkey dinner too. So that's awesome. It's a very selfish thing I'm here is what I'm saying. But I love it because it's just relaxed with no expectations. You know, I mean, Christmas is just chaos and I love Christmas.
- [02:48]
A
That's kind of the way it should be. This. It's a good Time to kind of recharge the batteries a little bit with friends and family.
- [02:56]
B
So it is. And it's a good time to reflect and just be thankful. We've talked about that in the past and, you know, I, I sound like probably to you and to others that are close to me, you know, kind of like not whining but, you know, complaining a little bit. Everything is just so hectic and there'll be more in the new year when, when we record in January, sometimes it'll all come out and anybody who's been listening along will be like, oh, okay. Because I can't tell you everything but like in January you'll be like, oh.
- [03:28]
A
Big things coming down the pipeline.
- [03:29]
B
Yeah. And just, just a lot of moving parts with a lot of different things. Lindsay's stuff and everything else, so. Which we knew it was going to be the case, but at the same time super thankful for all of it. It's all opportunity stuff, it's all good things and I think that's important.
- [03:46]
A
Congratulations to her for. And her partner for, you know, a second opening. And I've got a third one on the way.
- [03:52]
B
Yeah, yeah. So it's second driver.
- [03:55]
A
Yeah. That's awesome.
- [03:56]
B
It's pretty intense and proud of both of them because it's a ton of work and a lot of stress early on especially. But at the same time, what I was gonna say is like, it's all, as much as it can seem, chaotic and stressful and insane. And it is, it's all. When you reflect on it, I'm thankful for all of it because the opposite would be very much worse, if that makes sense.
- [04:20]
A
Sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, it's the good kind of. The good kind of stress. Yeah.
- [04:26]
B
And I knew it was coming. Like, yeah, like we've been talking about this. Like, I know my November, Jan. My October. November, December, basically a five month window is going to be bananas, but once we get through it, it'll be great. So we're just in the middle of it. Yeah, yeah, is what it is. But we just had part of that.
- [04:46]
A
Is the reason it's going to be great. I know this kind of segues into our topic for today, but you've been spending the time planning and you knew what was coming and you've been putting pieces in place to help kind of manage, you know, all these different parts and things you've got going on and the things that are going to come down the road.
- [05:11]
B
Right.
- [05:12]
A
So, you know, delegation. Right. Delegation. Trust in your staff. Make sure you train them appropriately. I mean these are all, you know, important things for a business owner.
- [05:23]
B
Well, I think it's, you know, trying to practice a little bit about what we preach. You know, it's long term vision. A lot of these things coming down have been in the works for a long, long, long time.
- [05:34]
A
Yeah.
- [05:36]
B
And then like you said, just really properly trying to invest time to plan as best as you can for how to execute all of it, you know, so we just had last week, which why we weren't recording, we had our two big events down in Florida. So we, we do three big events a year in each region, award banquet type of stuff. In October we had our New Hampshire one. We had back to back events in Jacksonville, Florida and Orlando, Florida I think combined right around 800 members attending. So those are not small little things. Plus an all day team meeting on Thursday. So it was just kind of a crazy productive but crazy week and trying to so planning on that. But yeah, what I, I've been learning more. It's not so much a learning because you know it, but it's one of those things like as you do it, you learn from it and as you do it, you learn why you've always believed it was important is, is this delegation idea. I think in the past I've delegated stuff, but I've always kept my fingers. I haven't fully delegated. Does that make sense? It's like, hey, this is yours, but I'm going to be in it. Yeah, yeah, you know, like, hey, this is yours, but I'm really.
- [06:55]
A
Yours is ours. I'm saying it's yours, but it's ours.
- [06:59]
B
Right. And, and I've started doing a lot more of like, no, this is yours. And that trust in my team to do it right, which they continue to do, which is awesome. This week was a big one. Like usually I was so deep into planning of those events and so deep in the execution of them and this year I really was way less. And they went off probably better in a lot of ways, if not the same probably better. And so that was like, hey, this can happen. I gave you an example of a meeting that's happening today that I, I would normally be a part of. And I was like, no, I trust you guys to have the meeting and come up with the solution and you let me know and unless the solution is crazy, we're going to go with it. You know what I mean? So yeah, yeah. I think delegating and thankful to have a team that you can do that to is the only way I'm going to be able to keep up.
- [07:53]
A
And so yeah, yeah, I, you know, I think it, it kind of calls to mind. I'm not sure if it's still popular in kind of these kind of like bni, there's a lot of these executive kind of networking groups and, and things like that. And one of the big mantras that was going on a long time ago was, you know, you have to, as a leader, you have to get to the point where you work on the business, not in the business. So it doesn't mean you don't have to be aware of things. And I think that's what you've spent a lot of your time doing. When you put together these events and these kind of business practices that you've done, you kind of have to get in and do the nuts and bolts so you understand how it works. You're able to then delegate that off. Recognizing when that time has come is really important for growth. Yeah, because you know, if you miss the, kind of, miss the marker, you stay in it too long, you won't be able to maximize other opportunities. And it's kind of nice that like, you know, if you hadn't put these pieces in place after all this time, you wouldn't be able to do these other things that you know, you'll talk.
- [09:03]
B
About down the road 100%.
- [09:05]
A
There's just no way to do it, no question. So, and, and you know, so for, if you're a business owner, you know, you have to kind of. I know we talked about spending a little time planning, but spend a little time thinking about, okay, well if I don't make any changes and I continue to do these day to day things that I'm doing with direct responsibility, am I missing out on potential opportunity? And if the answer is no, keep doing what you're doing. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. But if you're, if you realize you're missing opportunity or you want to do different things and you feel like you don't have the bandwidth, you have to start looking at, okay, making an investment in human capital that can help take over some of those responsibilities that lets you focus on other things and grow the business. It's kind of like it's an investment up front that pays a dividend down the road and that's exactly how you've positioned yourself.
- [09:58]
B
Yeah, I think it's, it's, it's true. It's a matter of where do you want to go. Right. And really having that vision. And then, I mean, for Me, the game is about to change entirely. And that's exciting. It's a little scary, but it's exciting. And, but yeah, it would never, I wouldn't even have been given the opportunities Lindsay and I if I was running how I was running even three years ago.
- [10:23]
A
Right.
- [10:23]
B
It just wasn't. It would never, it would never have been an option. Even though some of the things weren't even an option then. Like, even if they compared to how they are now, it wouldn't even be a possibility. It wasn't that long ago that, you know, we put out new member kits for all our new members. We ship them out with badges and everything else. It was only like three years ago. I was doing that.
- [10:43]
A
Yeah.
- [10:44]
B
Like the, the most basic of admin, you know, grind work. I was doing all of it and I was doing a lot of those things that now, you know, like I told you off air, I mean, we're about to hire our third and fourth full time admins. Yeah. Not like fueled and managers and everything else. Like again, I was doing all of it three years ago. Now we were going to four people.
- [11:09]
A
Yeah.
- [11:09]
B
So it's been escalating. And, and like you said, it was important for me to do it in some way because I needed to know how to do it. And to this day, I know how to do it. So if something goes wrong, like, I know how to do it. Like, I don't want to be stuck being like, holy crap, you know how to do it.
- [11:24]
A
More importantly, you know how to teach it. Right.
- [11:27]
B
Right.
- [11:27]
A
And I think that is such a, such a big key in growth is getting to the point where you're able to teach those things and then let other people kind of get them done and then they in turn at some point will teach others. So now you don't even have to teach, but you still know how to do it at the end of the day.
- [11:44]
B
Right.
- [11:45]
A
That's important.
- [11:46]
B
Lindsay and I have this conversation because she, with her, with her dry bar stuff and everything else, it's the same kind of thing. She's going to have three of them in about two months. And it's like, okay, you can't be in every single one, obviously, but she knows how to do it. If there's emergency or if there's like she's there today. It's a crazy day. It's the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. You know, they're all banged out, everybody wants to get their hair done and she's there to step in and help and be a support and she'll Bounce between two of them to do it. Because she knows how to do the basics of basics. But yeah, she's got to train and trust and yeah. Be okay with that. And I think, you know, yeah, she's getting more and more comfortable with it.
- [12:27]
A
You know, you, you just said a really key word. And, and I know this is, this is tough for a lot of people, especially if you've been involved in and you've been really hands on as a leader in the business. And if it's something you've built, Right. You've taken the time, you built the foundation, you built the business, you know how it, how, you know how you got there. Sometimes it's really hard to trust. Yeah. So, you know, delegation is an exercise in trust for the leader. And, and, but you have to go into it with realistic expectations. That one, whoever you delegate to, I don't care who they are, they're not you. Right. So you got to know that going in. But you have to exercise some trust and then teach. If the person doesn't execute, you know, the way you think, or at least be open to hearing why they want to do something different than you, it might just be better than your method. But that trust takes a little time. One of the ways I think you can build trust and credibility, I know we touched on this in the past and we touched on it off air, is when you do delegate and when you give people a role and a responsibility in your business. Too often, I think leaders get caught up in when someone does something wrong, you always catch that and it's just like, hey, this isn't right, this isn't right. You got to do it this way, you got to do it that way. I think one, there's a good way to do that if someone's doing something wrong. It's a teaching moment where you got to really try and figure out a, was it just a weird mistake because they don't have the experience, how do I fix it, how do I pull them around? And as a leader, it's always your responsibility when somebody makes a mistake because you either haven't trained them enough, you haven't told them the right story, you haven't done all those things. So kind of spend the time doing that. When you delegate, explain very carefully what you want. But it's easy to catch people doing wrong. You know what's just as easy? Catch them doing right.
- [14:20]
B
Right. And recognize it and thank them, you.
- [14:25]
A
Know, with this spirit of thanksgiving, thank them for doing the right thing, make it public. What that does is it engenders a great sense in them of, hey, you know, I just got rewarded emotionally, professionally for doing right. What do you think that's going to do? They're going to do more right behaviors.
- [14:45]
B
Right.
- [14:46]
A
And other people who see a person getting recognized for doing right, they want recognition so they do more right in order to be recognized. So as a business leader, you've got this great system. If you just also recognize not. You know, I know there's always the end of the year, and there's, you know, this, that, and the other thing, but you don't wait till the end of the year to recognize somebody making a mistake. Why wait till the end of the year, the end of the month, at the end of the quarter to recognize somebody for doing something right? Do it on the spot.
- [15:15]
B
100.
- [15:16]
A
Reinforce that behavior immediately. If someone just. And it doesn't have to be like a big giant thing. If you just see somebody do something, even if it's a little thing. And I know your BNI people in. In Jacksonville just heard all from Jeff Eisenberg about the little things that actually mean a lot in leadership. Those tiny moments. Right. If someone does something and it seems small still, hey, thanks for doing that.
- [15:40]
B
Right. That is definitely something I got to get better at myself. I know that because it is. You're right. It makes such a big impact. And it doesn't have to be this grandiose, you know, award or anything. It's just recognizing and saying thank you, and it goes a long way. It's one of our core values in BNI is recognition. Right. And recognition doesn't have to be an award. It's just recognizing the moment and recognizing the importance of it.
- [16:05]
A
And think about when you give thanks, you gain something. Givers gain.
- [16:09]
B
Yep. Right.
- [16:10]
A
So I. I mean, you. You have to prep. You have to recognize that all the time. And it's not easy. Once you get in the habit of saying, hey, thank you for these little things, you'll start noticing more and more of them, too, because you'll be paying attention.
- [16:20]
B
Well, that becomes your reticular activator. Right. You're training your brain to see it, and so you'll see more of it.
- [16:25]
A
And I guarantee you your overall results are going to be way improved.
- [16:32]
B
Yeah, I. I think there's a lot of truth to that now on the trust side. I do. I just want to hit the negative side of that. I. What. One thing I have learned this year as well, we've gone through some different changes and stuff, is if you're. When you're delegating, and it does. It takes a real big level of trust. And we've definitely delegated a lot more this year to our management teams and stuff like that. And I've kind of separating myself from just the day to day. Like, you know, are you going. Do we have people going to the meetings? And that kind of stuff? When that trust isn't there, you got to act on that, too. We've had some pretty big examples of that this year. And, you know, one of them. I'm not to name names and go into details, but one of them, it was a complete break of trust. And what was interesting was when we announced it about a change we made on our team, and I said, hey, you know, trust is a big thing, and. And it's been broken, so we have to move forward in a different direction. And I used the word like, and I hope you can trust that we are doing the right thing for the organization with it. Because I didn't want to give. I couldn't. Didn't want to give. Like, you know, here's what happened, and can you believe this type of story to, you know, our directors and everything? It was interesting to see some of the reactions to that. It's just like. Because some people were like, I can't believe he said this person was untrustworthy. And then two weeks later, they came to us and were like, you were right. But when, you know, it's like, it goes both ways. Like, it. It's a matter of, like, you need to trust they're going to do right. But when the trust and integrity is broken, don't become. Don't be trapped in the complacency or the fear of, like, oh, well, now I got to do this to replace them, or if I let them go, this might happen. Or now I got to step in. And I've seen a lot of people hold on to some employees because they don't want to step in and do the work or fear or whatever, even though they knew. Like, if you were to ask them, like, do you trust this person? Yeah, yeah. They could be like, no. And it's like, well, then they got to go.
- [18:26]
A
And I think it's important that there's an important distinction between, you know, a true breach of trust is in the example that you were just saying is different than somebody that makes a mistake. And I think it's easy. Sometimes the leader, sometimes if they delegate something to somebody and that person fails, they think, I can't trust that person to do the right job.
- [18:47]
B
Yeah.
- [18:47]
A
And I would say if I'm on the outside looking in as a consultant, which I do, and I come in and I go, and I'd say, I don't trust you to hire the right.
- [18:56]
B
People or you're not training them. Right. Or. Right, exactly.
- [19:01]
A
Identifying. So, you know, in the hiring thing we talk about, you know, hire slow, fire fast. I think it's the same thing. Delegate slow, adjust fast. I'm not saying you have to fire somebody to make a mistake. You as a leader have to take ultimate responsibility for those failings. Except in the cases of when the person just breaches us in a material way that can't be anticipated through the normal channels.
- [19:26]
B
So you can ask the questions, Right. If somebody makes a mistake, do you trust that they, they were honest and just made a mistake? Do you trust that they will learn from it and not make the mistake again? Do you trust that they're capable of doing the job, they just needed some additional training? Or is it like, oh, no, I don't trust you to do what's right. And then that's gotta, we gotta go.
- [19:45]
A
That's that introspection. Right. And, and the more you get in the habit of doing that thing, you know, ultimately your delegation decisions become a lot easier because it's like anything else, it takes practice. So if you've never done it before, you're, you're probably as a leader gonna make some mistakes in delegation 100.
- [20:01]
B
Yeah.
- [20:01]
A
And, and that's okay. You know, if you've never done it, I mean, you, it's kind of expected that you will. So, you know, that's where you have to kind of, you know, see a mentor, talk to people in your BNI chapter who have experience and they're like, what am I going to do? Or before you're about to delegate, have a lot of conversations with your peers.
- [20:20]
B
Yeah. Or make sure you line people up. We have some of that this year too. Like people that I trust implicitly and I know where their heart is and I know we're misaligned skill wise and we're making adjustments.
- [20:32]
A
Right.
- [20:33]
B
I use, I talk a lot about this in our trainings about trust too. Like my best friend, who, you know, I won't name, but you know, I trust a kid. Trust this guy with my life. Godfather to my firstborn. Would never trust him to show up on time.
- [20:47]
A
Yeah.
- [20:48]
B
So I probably would never refer him because he would show up late. Right. So like, if he was in sales, like, I couldn't refer him because I'd be like, you'd show up late to this meeting and I don't like. So there's like these, Trust is like, you know, there's so many different levels and everything else.
- [21:04]
A
Yeah. There's degrees.
- [21:05]
B
Yeah.
- [21:06]
A
But I, I, I think, you know, just a few, just those few little things though, just being thankful. Being thankful. You have, you know, people that want to be in your organization.
- [21:17]
B
Yeah.
- [21:18]
A
You know, especially when people have a passion for it. And I know we've talked about someone else that, that has started in an admin role for you and has really kind of blossomed and, and you know, you've delegated things. You've kind of trained you and you've, you know, you've been co pilot right alongside and I've heard you explain the way you explain things to this person is a great way of doing it. So, you know, I won't mention a name, but, you know, she's, she's, she's gonna be awesome. And she's only going to get better. Right. You know, as time goes on and she's still got a long career track in front of her. But, you know, the way you've kind of done it, the coaching, the explanation, here's the expectations, here's why we've done it this way. And now you're at the point where you can send her into a meeting without you and say, just come up with some solutions.
- [22:19]
B
Right.
- [22:19]
A
And we'll talk about them.
- [22:21]
B
Yep. It's awesome. It's a good feeling to have. Yeah. It's definitely changing in that unless, I know we gotta wrap up, but I would tell everybody, if you're listening to this, you have something to be thankful for even. No matter where your business is at in this journey and you know, you're hearing mine and, and it's going to a different place. And that's great. And I, I can explain all the bumps and bruises over the last 25 years, but there's always, I talk to this about my kids too. There's always somebody who would kill to be in your position no matter where you are. Like, like, so you might be like, oh, I'm only here, I'm only there, or this isn't going well and this isn't going right, or this, it's like somebody would kill to be in the position you're in right now. And so I think you don't get to that next level until you recognize where you are and be a bit thankful for where you are. And look at, you know, no matter how tough it might be or challenging little crazy or whatever, step back and realize, like, you know, this is part of it. This is just part of the journey. I love that. Like, you ever seen the picture where it's like, people think success is this, like, straight line and.
- [23:24]
A
Yeah.
- [23:24]
B
And it's like this freaking up and down. It's like, long. Lots of bumps along the way, pits and peaks and valleys. So, anyways, I'm thankful for you still. I. I still get to bounce ideas, and you. You get to be my sounding board. Of all the craziness on the back end.
- [23:41]
A
I'm thankful for you to do. I still feel useful.
- [23:44]
B
I think we. We talk more. Like, even when we come to do the podcast, there's more time before we hit record or after we hit record. An actual record. But, yeah, no, I appreciate you and everybody's listening, and we'll be back. We'll be back more, more consistently, despite the chaos. And I'm excited to keep everybody in loop of all the crazy stuff and. But enjoy your Thanksgiving, my man.
- [24:09]
A
Likewise. You, too. Enjoy the relaxation. Everyone out there, take a little time to be thankful. It doesn't have to be the big things. Can be the little things. And tell those people you're thankful and why next.
- [24:21]
B
Next time we record, man. One month left in 2025. I know.
- [24:25]
A
It's crazy.
- [24:26]
B
It's bananas.
- [24:27]
A
Yeah, it's crazy.
- [24:28]
B
He just flew. Yeah. All right, my man. Talk to you soon.
- [24:32]
A
Bye, everybody.