MBA2397 Why It Feels Like You Are Always Putting Out Fires + Free Ride Friday - The $100 MBA Show

Summary

The $100 MBA Show: MBA2397 - Why It Feels Like You Are Always Putting Out Fires + Free Ride Friday

Release Date: December 1, 2023
Host: Omar Zenhom

Introduction

In episode MBA2397 of The $100 MBA Show, host Omar Zenhom delves into a common challenge faced by entrepreneurs: the incessant feeling of "putting out fires." Drawing from over two decades of entrepreneurial experience, Omar explores why business owners often find themselves in constant crisis management and shares actionable strategies to transform this recurring chaos into manageable tasks.

The Entrepreneurial Firehouse

Understanding the Issue

Omar begins by highlighting the stark difference between being an entrepreneur and having a traditional job. Unlike employees who work within defined parameters, entrepreneurs constantly innovate, leading to a higher incidence of unforeseen challenges.

“Business owners are innovators. You're constantly doing new things...the likelihood of something going wrong is high.”
— Omar Zenhom [05:15]

The Role of Innovation

Innovation is the lifeblood of entrepreneurship, but with each new venture—be it a marketing campaign, a new hire, or a product launch—comes the potential for unexpected problems. This perpetual state of change inherently increases the chances of crises arising.

Shifting the Mindset

Embracing the Chaos

Omar recounts his personal journey of changing his mindset towards these frequent "fires." Recognizing that crises are an integral part of running a business allowed him to approach problems with less anxiety and more strategic thinking.

“You have to stop getting all riled up and upset and anxious...because that's just par for the course.”
— Omar Zenhom [08:20]

Insights from "4000 Weeks"

Referencing Oliver Berkman's "4000 Weeks," Omar emphasizes that problems evolve as one grows, and expecting a problem-free journey is unrealistic. Instead, embracing challenges as opportunities for growth can lead to greater resilience and adaptability.

Effective Firefighting Strategies

A Three-Step Protocol

Omar introduces a systematic approach to handling business crises:

Identify the Problem: Clearly define what the issue is to avoid panic-driven actions.

“Identify what exactly is the problem. What's the problem? What are we trying to solve here?”
— Omar Zenhom [12:05]
Immediate vs. Long-Term Solutions: Differentiate between actions that need urgent attention and those that can be scheduled for later.

“This is what needs to be done right now...and then this is how we can solve this problem permanently in the long run.”
— Omar Zenhom [12:30]
Delegate Responsibilities: Assign tasks to team members or outsource to ensure swift and efficient resolution without overwhelming oneself.

“Figure out who can do each task and try your best not to do any of them.”
— Omar Zenhom [13:10]

Scaling Problems: The 1-10 Approach

To manage perceptions of urgency, Omar suggests rating problems on a scale from 1 to 10. This helps in prioritizing issues based on their actual impact rather than perceived severity.

“From a scale of 1 to 10, 10 meaning this can cause my business to just collapse...and one being, even if I don't solve this problem right now, if I put it off, nothing's gonna happen.”
— Omar Zenhom [16:45]

Maintaining Team Morale

By calmly addressing issues and setting clear priorities, entrepreneurs can foster a stable and respectful team environment. Omar underscores the importance of leadership demeanor in influencing team responses to crises.

“If your demeanor and the way you're addressing them is going to be different...they will actually respect the urgency of an 8, 9, or 10 problem.”
— Omar Zenhom [17:30]

Free Ride Friday: Winner Announcement

In the Free Ride Friday segment, Omar announces this week's winner of a free ride to the $100 MBA program. The winner, "Keep On Going" from South Korea, was selected for their five-star review and entrepreneurial spirit.

“Keep On Going all the way from South Korea. Your mission is to email me at omar@100mba.net so you can claim your free ride to the $100 MBA.”
— Omar Zenhom [20:10]

Closing Thoughts

Omar wraps up the episode with a motivational message, acknowledging the rigorous demands of entrepreneurship. He encourages listeners to recognize their efforts and persevere through challenges, drawing parallels between entrepreneurship and other demanding pursuits like rock climbing.

“There’s a reason why most people are not entrepreneurs...but with every pain, there's reward.”
— Omar Zenhom [21:50]

Omar emphasizes that while the entrepreneurial journey is fraught with difficulties, the rewards make the struggles worthwhile. He urges entrepreneurs to celebrate their resilience and continue striving for success.

Conclusion

Episode MBA2397 of The $100 MBA Show offers valuable insights into the relentless nature of entrepreneurship and equips business owners with strategies to manage and mitigate constant challenges. By shifting mindsets, implementing structured problem-solving protocols, and maintaining team morale, entrepreneurs can transform the chaos of daily crises into opportunities for growth and stability.

Learn More:
For additional resources and business-building strategies, visit 100mba.net.

Transcript

Unknown Speaker 1 (0:00)

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Jim (0:31)

And we're back, folks. It looks like Jim from Snails just got in from his client lunch and he's got receipts.

Unknown Speaker 2 (0:37)

His next meeting is in two minutes. The team is asking, can he get through his expenses in that time?

Jim (0:42)

He's going for it.

Unknown Speaker 2 (0:43)

Is that his phone?

Jim (0:44)

He's snapping a pic. He's texting Ramp.

Unknown Speaker 2 (0:46)

Jim is fast, but this is unheard of.

Jim (0:48)

That's it. He's done it. It's unbelievable.

Omar Zenhom (0:51)

On ramp, expenses are faster than ever. Just submit them with a text. Switch your business to ramp.com. hey, yo. Welcome to the $100 MBA show, the business podcast that always got your back with practical business lessons. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher, Omar Zenholm. And today's episode is Free Ride Friday. On Free Ride Fridays, we give away a free ride to the $100 MBA, our program showing you how to become a better entrepreneur. 100% guaranteed over at 100mba.net. If you want to win a free ride, just leave us an Apple podcast rating and review and you enter our weekly random draw we call Freeride Friday. Listen in on Friday to see if you won. It's that easy. We announce this week's winner a little bit later in the episode. In today's episode, you will learn why it feels like you're always putting out fires. As a business owner, you feel like a professional firefighter almost on a daily basis, you're waking up to problems, new problems, problems that you need to solve. Some of these problems are huge. They're critical to the life of the business. Some of them not so huge, but still got to get them done. Why is this the case? Why are there so many fires as a business owner, and what can you do about it? How can you become better at this? This is something I've been studying for some time, actually been thinking about for years, and been wanting to do an episode about it. So here it is, the culmination of my work on this topic. At the end of this episode, you're gonna feel better about your business. You're gonna feel better about how to deal with these fires with These problems that face you and your business every day, you're gonna have a better approach. And best of all, they're not gonna be fires anymore. I'll tell you what I mean, let's get into it. Let's get down to business. One of the things a lot of people don't really grasp or comprehend is as a business owner, as an entrepreneur, your life, your career is not the same as anybody else in a job. Jobs have job descriptions. There's parameters to what you have to deal with. There's parameters to what you're responsible for. So there's only so much that can go wrong. Okay? It's not like you're not going to deal with any problems in a job, but you're dealing with far less fires than an entrepreneur. Why? Well, I really researched this topic. I took a look at my own career, my own past. I've spoken to so many entrepreneurs about this. People that run multimillion dollar businesses, small startups, big startups, all kinds. And here's the truth. Business owners are innovators. You're constantly doing new things, whether it's with a marketing campaign, whether it's with a new hire, whether it's with new products or services. You're doing new things all the time. You're introducing new things to your business and to your life all the time. You have to. Innovation is really the lifeblood of every entrepreneur. You gotta keep doing that so that you can stay competitive. So anytime you start changing things in your business, in your life, introduce new factors, new possibilities, the likelihood of something going wrong is high. When I started to realize this, I had a epiphany. I had a change of mindset. And that is I got to stop getting all riled up and upset and anxious and feeling horrible every time there's a fire. Why? Because that's just par for the course. This is part of the package. You have to deal with problems now. You can get better at it, you can outsource it, you can manage it. There's all different kinds of techniques. But the reason why this is happening is because you're an entrepreneur, because you have a business. That's it. This is just what comes with the deal. You're in the problem solving business. One of the things that helped me change the way I see this is for a book called 4000 Weeks by Oliver Berkman. I talked about this book earlier this year, one of the best books I've read this year, if not the best book. And he talks about that we live under this myth that If I just do this one thing, if I get to this level in life, when I climb this mountain, there'll be no problems. The funny thing is that we don't learn from our past. We've climbed mountains before, we've achieved things before. We have moved up in life, so to speak, or in our career and gotten better. And did problems go away? No, they didn't. You just exchanged them for higher level problems. Just think about it. No matter how old you are, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, no matter how old you are, look at your past. Was there ever a time in your life where there were zero problems for a long period of time? No. That's just not life. And that's not business. Business is dealing with challenges. So embrace it. Understand that you will have fires, you will have problems. Expect it. Understand that's what you do. If you didn't have that, you wouldn't have anything to do, right? You wouldn't have any challenges. And really, that's what they are. They're new challenges now. They're extremely stressful in the moment. Trust me, I've gone through some serious fires in my businesses in the past. And in the moment you just want to, you know, let the ground swallow you. Right? You just want it to be over. But what you realize is all these fires you've put out before, all these problems you solved before, they prepare you for the next problem. Because you realize, I've done this before, I can do it again. This is just normal. And the more problems you have, the more you get better at it, the better you are in terms of controlling your emotions and not getting riled up and learning how to do things calmly and get help from others, from your team, from, from managers on your team, from people that can take action. So now when I have any kind of problem, big or small fire in my business, I set up a protocol. And the protocol is first I like to identify what exactly is the problem. What's the problem? What are we trying to solve here? Because sometimes in the panic, we forget what we're trying to do here. We just want the bleeding to stop, we want the problem just to stop. So identify. This is what we're trying to do. This is the problem. This is what we're trying to solve. The next thing is what needs to be done right now and what needs to be done later. And literally all these steps happen within five minutes. So, so I literally write it down. This is what needs to be done right now to stop the bleeding or stop things from going wrong or to Reduce the impact, and then this is how we can solve this problem permanently in the long run. Step three is who can do these things for me? Right? As problem solvers, as entrepreneurs, as business owners, we often think that the responsibility is on us. We have to do all the work. No. Yes, you're responsible, but it doesn't mean you have to implement. It means that you just need to make sure it gets done. So you have probably people on your team that can do a lot of those things that need solving. Or you can find somebody, you can freelance somebody, you can hire somebody quickly on a project. You can seek help from a friend or from a colleague, or from somebody who maybe works in the same coworking space as you. And you might have three or four tasks. Figure out who can do each task and try your best not to do any of them. If you have to do one, fine, that's okay. But by splitting up what needs to be done and outsourcing it to other people, you actually can get things done quickly. Because instead of you trying to do four or five things, you do one thing and three or four other people do the rest. You just speed things up a lot easier. And usually they're doing something that they're an expert at that they've done before and can help you. I then do the same thing with the long term solution, and I tell myself, this will pass. I've solved problems before, we'll solve them again. Now. It's important to say now that you know this, that fires are par for the course and they're going to come and you're going to have problems. And that's just how it is in business. It doesn't mean you're on edge always. It doesn't mean you can't relax or have any kind of enjoyment because a fire is around the corner. In fact, it means the opposite. You have to enjoy yourself. You have to actually embrace the challenge and say, yeah, I could take this on, I can do this, I've done this before and I will do it again. And even if I've done it before, I'm gonna learn something in this process. And even when the fire is done and dusted, try your best to understand that it's okay. It's normal for this to happen and to move on and to enjoy you having a business. Okay. It's very easy for you to get really riled up and to have kind of like PTSD from fires and be like, every time something happens, you're like, oh, this bad thing's gonna happen. Again, in my business, a customer's gonna complain on Google reviews or my telecom company is going to have an outage, and then I can't process any credit cards in my store or my hosting provider is going to have, you know, some sort of downtime. The point here is there's a good chance that could happen again. There's a good chance you'll have another fire. Okay? There's no point in worrying because worrying doesn't solve problems. Worrying just makes it worse. And to calm your worry, remember that this is supposed to happen and you will weather the storm with a home.