← Impact Podcast, Mentorship with Eddie Wilson
Impact Podcast, Mentorship with Eddie Wilson
29 - Why Your Business Struggles | Fix These Three Problems Now
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Eddie Wilson
Welcome to the Impact Podcast. I'm Eddie Wilson, here to help you visualize what others cannot see, create opportunities where others have failed, and push you to build empires where once there was empty space. Let's embark on this journey together and make a difference in this world. Hey, guys. Welcome to the Impact Podcast with Eddie Wilson. You're actually on site today with me at the Wary Studios in Las Vegas where we're Shooting Business Growth 2025, one of the largest business conferences in the nation right now. We have over 18 celebrity speakers like Kevin Costner and Kevin Hart, some crazy, crazy speakers and guests, but I wanted to not miss a week and make sure that I got a podcast out to you. You know, one of the things that's been on my mind a lot lately is that there are business owners that are failing, they're struggling, and they really don't know what questions to ask. They don't know where to look, they don't know where to actually, like, point their energy to make sure that if they solve these fundamental issues, they're going to get to success. So what I did, instead of just coming up with the three things that I think you need to focus on, which I have three, and if you're not winning in these three areas, you're losing. Instead of just essentially creating my own three, I went to where the average business person's going. I went to ChatGPT. I actually just did it right on the free version. And I said, what are the three hardest things to solve in business? Now, I actually agree with all three things. I don't agree with the order of them, but I agree with all three. So we're actually going to use the ChatGPT prompts, and I'm going to help you solve these three issues today. So when you ask ChatGPT, and feel free to do it, I typed in the three hardest questions to tackle in business. And according to CHAT GPT, the three are. And I'm going to list these three out and then we're going to actually tackle them. Okay, so the number one problem or the number one issue to solve is what is our true competitive, competitive advantage and is it sustainable? Okay, what is our true competitive advantage? Number two, are we allocating our resources, time, capital, talent to our highest impact priorities? Another fantastic one. And number three, do we have the right people in the right roles and are we truly building a culture that supports our strategy? These are the three issues that ChatGPT says are the hardest to solve in business. Now let me tell you something. If you're not solving these three problems on a daily basis, not just a weekly, monthly, you know, annual basis, on a daily basis, you're losing in business. And it doesn't matter if you have a product business, if you have a service business. These three problems are something that you have to solve in the immediate, in the daily, right? Like something that you have to be aware of as a leader. But I'm going to do something different. I'm actually going to reprioritize these. So I'm going to give you what I believe to be the right priority on this is, and then we're going to solve them and we're going to help you out. Okay? So number one, my first priority, which is actually ChatGPT's third priority, is do we have the right people in the right roles? Are we truly building a culture that supports strategy? Now, this is important because if you don't get the people right, then nothing else matters, right? Like if you remember the second, first and second were are we allocating resources, time, so on and so forth, and what's our competitive advantage? I've seen people without a competitive advantage still win in business, right? But because they have the right people. The right people are the rudimentary foundational piece that you have to have right in your business. Now, if you're a solopreneur, it might just be you, it might just be you and a partner, a spouse or whoever's helping you. But in the end, it comes down to the right people. If you are not supporting you and your skills and gifts and talents by bringing other people on, you're going to fundamentally mess up the other two. These fundamental pieces are vitally important. I use a tool called Predictive Index. Predictive Index helps me understand what people's drives are. I believe that in finding the right people, number one, you have to understand what they're driven towards, right? So, like, what is my end desire, my end goal? Because then as you put people in the right seats and they have the right drive, you don't have to motivate them, you don't even necessarily have to overpay them. You don't have to overstimulate them to go do what it is that they're driven to do, because when they show up, they're already driven to do it. So you get in line with people's drives. Number two, you get in line with the cultural tie. They have to be culturally connected to you. I call this your core values, right? So these are the things that snap you together like a magnet, right? Like A core value, when it's aligned, is like a magnet that just snaps together, right? Like, my core values are honesty, integrity, passion. Right? Like, but if I find somebody who's dishonest, somebody who won't tell the truth or who doesn't have a passion for truth, it's like the magnets in reverse. It's like no matter how hard you try to put them together, they repel each other. Right? So, number one, it has to be in line with someone's drives. Number two, it has to be culture, a cultural fit. And I say that that's your core values. Number three, then it's the experience. I don't hire people off of experience. I hire them. Number one, on what they're driven off of. Number two, do they align with my core values? Then number three, do they actually have the experience to do the job that I need them to do? Oftentimes, by hiring somebody with experience, all you do is put a massive roadblock into the direction where you want to go. This is super important because when you're getting into the game of adding people to the team, right. People by nature bring an emotion, and our emotions aren't always in sync and aren't always together. So when our emotions are out of alignment, it's hard to discern what the driver is in someone. And that's why when I said I gave you my three things on how to hire the right person or put the right person next to you, there was no emotional component to that. Right. A drive is something that's instinctual. It's something that's deep. It's a desire, it's a passion, it's a fire. Right? And our core values, oftentimes the emotions come out of the feeling of those core values, but they're not emotionally led. And then thirdly, experience is absolutely not emotionally led. Right? So what you saw is I took the emotion out of deciding who to put next to me. The number one problem, the number one issue that most businesses face is they pick the wrong person, right? The wrong people. Let me give you a stat. If I have. Let's say I have 120 employees. Employees today. If I pick one wrong person, right? Like, I put the one wrong person on the team, that's less than 1% off, right? Like, less than 1%. If I have one out of 120, I can survive that. If you're a solopreneur and the very first person you hire is the wrong person, you're now 50% off. Does that make sense? That's why I say that from ChatGPT's numbers. It is one of the top, hardest things to solve, but it has to be number one because it's foundational to everything else. Number two is exactly in reverse of what ChatGPT said is their number two. I also believe is my number two. Right, but it's in reverse, right? So I say their number three is my number one, right? Which is right people right fit, right seats. Number two is allocation. The proper management of time and people comes down to allocation. And whatever you put your focus towards will create some growth. So when you put your focus towards the wrong thing and focus can be simply boiled down to where the resources are given. Maybe it's mental resources, maybe it's financial resources, maybe it's people resources, but if you allocate them in properly, you're putting focus in an area that's going to give you the wrong result. Prioritization is often clouded by commitments, politics, short term pressures and unclear metrics, right? So like, let me go back over that again. Prioritization is often clouded by commitments, right? Like, well, they're expecting something of me. I can't tell you how many times I've sat inside of an office and said, hey, you have to let this person go. I can't let them go because I said, right? It's like, yeah, but this person is going to capsize your business. This person is going to prevent you from actually finding success. Yeah, but it's like, no, at some point you have to put the business first, right? It's a misallocation of resources, politics, right? Like people's feelings, people's beliefs, short term pressures, right? Like, oh man, I really got to get this done. And so we allocate resources in short term that don't serve a long term vision. Or here's the number one problem in this, unclear metrics, right? Like where should I put them? And most people don't have a decision making process that's broken. They have a data process that's broken. Most people will make the right decision when the right data is in front of them. So by setting the right clear metrics, the right, the right benchmarks, it gives you clear data to actually make sure that you understand which direction, which decision to take. Lastly, what is our true competitive advantage? Now you can succeed without a competitive advantage. However, you will grow and you will scale when you have one. Now let me give a clear distinction here because most people think that just because they have a competitive advantage, they're going to win. Competitive advantage doesn't ensure A win. What it does is it ensures separation from the competition. For instance, I have a coffee business. Now in that coffee business, I only deal with the top 2% of the world's coffee, right? So like I don't deal with the bottom 98%. Starbucks, Dunkin, you know, Dutch Bros, whatever, all these big, big chain stores, they deal with the bottom 98% of coffee. I only deal with specialty, roast, top group, 2% of the world's coffee. That's my differentiator. However, if I used an improper that doesn't ensure success, it could actually go the opposite way. It could cost me more, right? Like I pay almost 10 times the amount for my green beans before they're roasted than Starbucks does. Well, something has to create separation, right? So I have to do business differently. And so that competitive advantage also then has to be sustainable. That's the important part is sustainability is, is your competitive advantage advantage not just setting you apart, but is it sustainable, right? Like if I can't sell a cup of coffee for more than Starbucks does, then I'm not going to be sustainable. I can have the best coffee in the world, but if somebody won't pay for it, my competitive advantage isn't an advantage at all. And the last part about this is most companies confuse being good at something with being uniquely good at something. Here's the thing, the reason that my coffee companies winning is not just because I have the top 2% of the world's coffee, because there's other people in my markets where my coffee shops are, where my roastery is, that deals in the top 2% of the world's coffee. However, it's the top 2% of the world' coffee, how we serve it and how we market it. When I stand on big stages, I teach the audience, I say, hey, let me tell you what it means to drink a cup of coffee. That's the top 2% of the world's coffee. I literally educate the people so when they're educated, they will pay the extra money, right? My competitive advantage is unique in that we communicate specifically on the competitive advantage. You could have the greatest service in the world, greatest product in the world, but if it doesn't have a uniqueness, sometimes the uniqueness is you, sometimes the uniqueness is your packaging, sometimes the uniqueness is the placement or the distribution. But you have to find a uniqueness to the actual product that has a competitive advantage. And then by the way, your competitive advantage has to evolve, right? My coffee, if you, if you go into any of the coffee shops, you'll find that we have chefs that actually make the, the proprietary natural house made syrups. Right? Because in the end I'm always evolving, always changing, always adding new flavors. Why? Because a unique competitive advantage can still grow stale and you have to evolve. So Those are the three issues that, that ChatGPT says that you have to solve. They're the hardest ones to solve to be successful in business. And I agree. I just think they're in reverse. Let me go over them one more time. Do we have the right people in the right roles? And are we, and are we truly building a culture that supports our strategy? Number two, are we allocating our resources, time, capital, talent to the highest impact priorities? And number three, what's our true competitive advantage and can we create sustainability? And maybe I'll even add, do we have a true unique competitive advantage? Those are the three things that ChatGPT says that we have to solve. And I believe you have to solve them as well. And that's why the commentary on that. Now let me say one last thing. ChatGPT, all AI, an amazing tool. And every conference I go to today, every stage I stand on, I get asked a question that is this I get asked, Eddie, is ChatGPT going to take all of our jobs, right? Are they going to take my job? I'm a graphic designer, am I going to have a job? I'm a web designer, am I going to have a job? Right? Like all these, you know, services and products, it's like, is AI going to solve it? Now I'm a huge fan of AI, I'm a believer in it, I'm trying to instill it in my business. We're using it for all types of data comparison, comparison and analysis. We're using it for design, we're using it for web, we're using it for all kinds of different things. I'm a huge proponent of it. But what I'll talk about for just one second is that you'll never lack a job with regards to AI if you can learn to lead it. If you learn to lead it. Because what happens is, is if you don't plug the right data in, you're never going to get the right result. So if I were to actually tackle these problems, right, the reason why I'm in such high demand as a business speaker or business consultant and why my businesses succeed so rapidly is because I can take these questions and add the right points of data and get guidance to ChatGPT, right? So for instance, what's our true competitive advantage? If you then Guide it. And you actually say, you're like, hey, I have a coffee company. You tell them, ChatGPT, I have a coffee company. I deal in 2% of the world's coffee. Right. Can you give me some suggestions on how to create uniqueness in my competitive advantage? Right. Like, it's all about guiding it. You can add elements of, you know, most of our coffee shops are in the Southeast. Are there elements of culture in the Southeast that would be more relevant if I tied it to my uniqueness? You have to have enough astute ability to guide ChatGPT, to guide AI into a place where it's actually usable. You'll never lack for an opportunity if you can be the guide. Right. Andrew, my business partner, he teaches this process. And I know that a lot of other people teach this as well. And what I see is, is that in every situation, there's three people, there's three. There's three, you know, components. Number one, there's a guide. Number two, there's a villain. And number three, there's a hero. Now, in life, what I've realized is I never lack for opportunity. If I'm the guide, if I'm the hero, people love to take me on. People like to go after me, people like to challenge me. People like to actually create competition. If I'm the villain, then I'm always trying to keep my head above water. I'm always trying to, you know, if I'm trying to disrupt all the time, and I'm disrupting just for disruption's sake, what you have is this uphill battle that you have to constantly fight. But what I'll say is, is that. That if I'm the guide, there's always resources there, there's always value there. And for you, I would say that in this AI landscape, it's to tackle this concept of being the guide. Instead of trying to worry about, can AI take my job, can it actually functionally change what I do? Start thinking about being the guide. Thanks so much for being a part of the podcast today. I know it was short and sweet, but being here on such a At war a studios, I wanted to get something out to you guys, help you out this week. Always remember that I want to help you in any way I can respond. Hit me up on social. I always answer my DMs. Send me DM questions with any business questions that you have, and I'd love to help you out. Have a great day. Thanks for being a part of the Impact podcast today. Thanks so much for being a part of the podcast and for listening today. Love to connect with you further. And you can connect with me on social media at at Eddie Wilson official on any of the social media channels.