Chasing Financial Freedom
Chasing Financial Freedom
From Imposter Syndrome to Success: Kyle Gillette's Journey and the BlueShirt Leadership Framework
Ever felt like a fraud as an entrepreneur or found yourself grappling with imposter syndrome? Fear not, as our latest conversation with Kyle Gillette, a five-time business owner and creator of the BlueShirt Leadership Framework, offers invaluable insights on overcoming these challenges and growing your business. We discuss Kyle's unique journey, from growing up on an Orange Farm in California to working in a men's mentoring program, and how these experiences shaped his approach to business and coaching.
We explore the importance of learning from failure and how Kyle's past business ventures have led him to his current success with BlueShirt Coaching. Kyle shares his thoughts on the BlueShirt Leadership Framework and how it can help business owners push past their fears and grow their businesses. We also touch on the topic of succession planning and building sellable businesses, with valuable advice for small business owners looking to transition out of their companies.
Finally, we delve into the critical role employee engagement plays in business growth. Kyle shares his experience working with clients who have seen significant increases in revenue through creating a positive work environment. We also discuss the benefits of networking and joining groups like Kyle's dads and business group on Alignable, as well as the importance of taking risks and overcoming imposter syndrome. Don't miss this valuable conversation with Kyle Gillette, packed with insights and advice for entrepreneurs and business owners.
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I hope you guys are having a great day. today on the podcast We have Kyle Gillette. Kyle is a five-time business owner, current owner of BlueShirt Coaching, which helps dads and moms take their businesses to the next level without their families paying the price. Kyle's multiple coaching and behavioral assessment certifications is a podcast host, author and creator of the BlueShirt leadership framework. Kyle, welcome to the show. Thanks, ryan. It's great to be here. Thanks for a little bit of a wait coming on the show, but looking forward to our conversation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, me too, for sure.
Speaker 1:So before we get into the heavy stuff, let's just talk a little bit about you, a little background on yourself, and then we'll get into some rabbit holes. Sounds good.
Speaker 2:My I grew up on Orange Farm in the Central Valley of California. So if people, if you've ever had a guest that grew up on Orange Farm, then that's awesome, but a lot of people don't have an experience to guest that grew up on Orange Farm. So that's my background. My dad was an entrepreneur Basically. Right when I was born he went all in with the business and took a risk big risk because two kids at that time And so that's in my blood And I ended up not pursuing the family business and ended up coming up to the Pacific Northwest and pursuing some other things. But my history just before coming up here was working in a men's mentoring program for about nine years And I got to live in this place and work with the guys and we helped them get their lives on track. So typically they're 18 or 25 year olds and struggling with something drugs, alcohol, some sort of an addiction And we helped them get their lives on track using what we call a life map And I use that in my coaching practice as well to a certain degree. And that experience was amazing Between the mentorship with my dad growing up and working since I was in seventh grade and then working in this program where the president of the program had run 30 different businesses and every Tuesday he mentored me at lunch And that was just an awesome experience to get that embedded into me and what it is to be a business owner, a business leader, that type of stuff.
Speaker 2:Then I messed around with personal training business and that went really well. And then I tried an online training business and that was a dumpster fire. And then I tried a live coaching business, and that was a dumpster fire. And then I opened this business and it's been awesome. So that's the short history. The fifth business I ran was actually a pet resort and that was part of the men's mentoring program, started this one about five years ago and I think I'm going to do this until I'm 85. I don't know why I wouldn't continue going for the rest of my life. I'm loving what I'm doing and I'm stoked to be here and be able to share with your audience and also learn from you.
Speaker 1:Awesome, thank you, gotta ask the question Whereabouts in California, bifresno? Okay, whereabouts in Bifresno? I'm from Southern California, so I know California very well. So I'm just curious, sure A little town called Dinuba.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, i had uncles and aunts that were living in Bakersfield, okay, and then also, oh my God, there was another little tiny city that was right near that, and it'll come to me afterwards. But, yeah, i was born and raised in Southern California, so I'm quite familiar with that, so that's awesome. What drove you to go to the Pacific Northwest? Was it because to work with these men, or was there another calling?
Speaker 2:No, i wanted to. I'd wrapped up working in that program and my wife and I were. We had our second kid and we're going. Okay, we want to raise our kids in a place where family's around. So it was between moving to the valley or moving up to the Pacific Northwest where her parents are, and so we popped up here and we're still around and fortunately her parents are retired and so we get to see them a lot and they get to see the grandkids quite a bit too.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. So, as we dive into this, my first step in my first question in all this is I too am a three strike guy when it comes to being running businesses. I had three failures, so I understand that. What kept you going with the different businesses As you said, they were dumpster fires What motivated you to get back on the horse and say I'm going to find something that I connect with but also make it successful?
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's a recent phrase that I heard that there's no failure, there's only feedback. I think that in retrospect, that's definitely the lesson In the moment. When I was in the moment, i knew that I could apply the failures, i could apply the mistakes to this business or to whatever that future business was that I didn't know was going to exist. But I got into the WordPress world and website development and marketing and lots of networking and all that paid for tremendously for this current business, though it was a waste of maybe not a waste, but it was a use of money and definitely a use of my time. It wasn't a waste and it definitely was a feedback that was necessary, otherwise it wouldn't be where I am with this business. I don't regret those things and I think if I was in the midst of doing the personal training thing, i wouldn't be as passionate as I am now about what I do. It's a better fit. The big X, the big no, was ultimately a good thing for me.
Speaker 1:When you were going through those businesses, how did you select them or how did you get turned on to them to be able to start them?
Speaker 2:Yeah, the personal training one my background is physical therapy and kinesiology was my degree in college. That one was easy. I just jumped into that one and that was more in-person work and that was really successful. I really enjoyed that. Then I thought how do I scale this thing? Let me put it online.
Speaker 2:I don't know if I was ahead of the time or if I was right on it, but I just didn't do it very well, because people do online training all the time now and they do it very successfully. I just missed the bus or something, but it was a good fit for what I'd already experienced. Then, having worked at the Men's Mentoring Program for multiple years, i thought what if I did that in the world of business, in the world of adults, people that are further along in their lives? I took the concepts and wrote a book from my experience and then started to promote that.
Speaker 2:I had some opportunities. They went well. but then I think it was an issue of courage, an issue of I had too many fears to pursue people and I didn't do the marketing work I should have. I had to look how come it didn't work out. but the reality was I didn't put the work in and that's my fault. Then, when I got to this next one, the current one, i was willing to put all the work in, and that's usually the trick you put the work in.
Speaker 1:It comes around, that is for sure. When you were afraid to put the work in, were you afraid of the marketing aspect, connecting with people? talk a little bit more about the struggle there.
Speaker 2:Yes, now I speak publicly and I'm in part of a bunch of different networking groups. That's no issue for me. But then if I were to go to a networking event and someone says, hey, what do you do? I would be shaking and nervous. Just to share for 30 seconds what I'm up to, it was a mess, it was scary for me. So, knowing that the greatest way to success when it comes to the live coaching side of things or general coaching side of things is you got to interact with people, yeah, get to know them a little bit The whole MeloLive can trust formula It wasn't going to happen if I was too afraid to share what I do, and so that was pretty limiting for me And I had a big giant imposter syndrome on stamp on my forehead And I figured out that's all a lie and how to deal with that And I found a way that I like to teach my clients about on that too. But that was the big limitation for me those two things.
Speaker 1:I like how you describe the imposter syndrome. There's a lot of that out there And there's some people out there that unfortunately, in the coaching space, are not how should I say on the up and up. But the imposter syndrome. We all struggle with it in life. What can we do to overcome that aspect of feeling like we're not good enough to ask people for money for our services?
Speaker 2:Sure, In my framework. Blue is an acronym and stands for Be a Self-Ware Leader, lead with Accountability, use a Growth Mindset and Empower Others. In the growth mindset part there's several. There's five different mindsets that help people grow, and the first one is risk.
Speaker 2:And the way I describe it is if you picture the scrabble tiles that look just like a die, if you picture them half turned and one part says fake, fake and one part says fact. And what I say is it's a fact that if you don't feel like a fake, you're not going to grow, and it's a fact that if you don't feel like a fake, and it's a fact that if you do feel like a fake, you are going to grow. So the imposter syndrome is we got to take risks And if we don't take risks, we're not going to feel like a fake, and so it's a fact we're not going to grow. But when we do take that risk and we feel like a little bit of a fake, it's this wonderful alert to us that says you're going down the right path. You're doing things that are scary.
Speaker 2:Now, if you're always there, that's a different issue. That's not what I'm referring to. It's more like moments. Most people don't live in the imposter. They have moments of it And for me that's an encouragement. It says I'm feeling uncomfortable and a little bit fake here. I'm not faking it because I'm a liar or have bad ethics. I'm just feeling a little bit out of my depth And that allows me to go oh, that's really cool. Actually, i'm going to learn from this and I'm going to grow, and so the risk is worth it, and that's been the way I've tweaked risk and imposter with my clients and myself.
Speaker 1:I like that, So I guess I need to get the next question out. is your clients? how much of a struggle do they have with the risk in being able to take failure on when it does happen?
Speaker 2:Yeah, with my clients it's a fear thing, right. So a lot of times people come to me with productivity struggles or cash flow issues or those types of things, but ultimately it's a self awareness that says wait, i'm actually afraid to make money, i'm actually afraid to manage my time or to manage my energy more effectively, because I don't know what that's going to produce for me. Some people play to not lose and some people play to win And some people play to lose, unfortunately. And so as I work with my clients and figure out where they land on that spectrum, if they play to win, that one's easy. If they play to not lose, that's a different game and a different approach.
Speaker 2:And the imposter comes up. If you're playing to not lose because you're like I'm going to play hard, but I just want to play at the end. Here I'm up by 10. I'm going to play so that we don't lose, which, if you watch sports, often it's frustrating. You watch that team pull back and then they lose. This is what happens with people. And then some people they just serve so much, they give so much of themselves. They're actually playing to lose And so that makes them feel like an imposter because they're feeling bad about themselves and that nobody cares about their efforts, and that's a new self awareness conversation. I have to help them through that or we work through that together.
Speaker 1:Just out of curiosity, the percentage of clients that come to you, how many are actually in that space of playing to lose or they're just flat out afraid and they're going to lose?
Speaker 2:I would have to guess. I would say you. I'm thinking of statistics and the assessments that my clients have taken, so give me a moment. But I would put it in the 50 plus percent, because the assessment results actually objectively reveal whether people play to lose or play to win, based on what the assessment says in terms of their personality types. So about half the people land in that play to not lose perspective.
Speaker 1:What type of assessment are your clients taking when they first connect up with you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I do. Disc and motivators. It's two different assessments.
Speaker 1:If you could explain the two. I don't know. All the listeners know what they are.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so disc is a behavioral assessment. It looks at your habits and the patterns of your habits. I could dive deeply into it but you don't have time. So there's just four different types and each type is unique And you have all four types within you that explain your behavioral framework, how you operate, and you can use that to get a better objective view of your own self and have more really better emotional intelligence about how you operate. Whereas the motivators is about your thinking patterns, disc is your behavioral patterns. Then motivators is seven different thinking patterns and how those impact and influence the programming in your mind from a kind of born in place and how those can be leveraged in ways in your business so that your behaviors adjust and your thinking patterns adjust, obviously for good.
Speaker 1:And majority of your clients are small business owners, entrepreneurs, yeah, yeah okay. Pretty much everyone of them. Are they existing as in, like they have their own businesses today, or are they in it, or are most of them actually wanting to do something and jump into that world?
Speaker 2:No, they exist. They've been in business two, three plus years typically, and they've got employees in most cases, but not always.
Speaker 2:Interesting And they're at an inflection point in their business to where it's not growing and they feel like they need to make a change to grow the business Yeah typically it's a productivity issue with the team or themselves or both, and so they aren't at the efficiency level that they want to be, and that has to do with broken systems or no systems whatsoever.
Speaker 2:A lot of people don't have systems in their business. And then it also has to do with leadership limitations, where they don't realize the capacity of their leadership, they don't realize how capable they are as a leader. And those are those fears, those limitations and things like that, and we work on that. Help them become aware of those limitations, those fears, and then build their own habits and mindsets around it. After that, you can help your team build the systems and processes to be successful going forward, which then, of course, leads to I don't want to work in my business anymore, i want to work on it. So that's often what people come to me about too those three in it or on it, not in it systems, and then leadership development.
Speaker 1:What would be the And you don't have to give all three, but what would be one top struggle that these individuals are coming to you with after you've gone through the assessments in running their business or growing it? what would be that one that you'd want to talk about and share And what can we do to help improve it? If, let's say, for me, time management is probably my biggest strength, but then it also is my biggest weakness, so I have to balance that out So I know exactly where I have to be on a daily basis.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Time management is a big one for sure, And I like to just frame it very simply It's not about managing time, it's about managing energy. And if the client can know where their energy is going in a given day, in a given week, in a given month and get better at either the rhythms of that or the systems of that, depending on the person. Some people are rhythm and other people are more process-like or more stepwise, And so if we can figure that out how to manage the rhythms or the process so that their energy is in the right spot they're going to stay productive at a higher rate and be more efficient in general in their business. So that's one of them. And the second one is people have goals, but they struggle to actually stay accountable to achieving those goals, And so I have a whole system that I've developed to help people stay accountable to achieving those goals at a really high rate. But that one's a lot more involved because there's a lot of blocks that are going on that prevent people from pursuing that goal.
Speaker 1:It becomes. It's from my personal standpoint. I've evolved over the years as an entrepreneur, small business owner. I spent 25 years in corporate America and corporate America never taught me how to be an entrepreneur, to run a business this way, and that's why I had those failed businesses. I had to learn from them. But one of the biggest things that I took away was goal-setting. Corporate America allowed me to create goals and then I call them, break them down and then chomp them down even further.
Speaker 1:So every single morning I wake up, it's my quiet time. That's where I write down my daily goals that will help me achieve my larger goals. And then I hold myself accountable at the end of the day and say, okay, what did you do, what didn't you do And why? And it's been a journey I've gotten better. But there's some days it's like I catch myself and I'm like dude, you're slacking off, you need to get back on the plan. And it's okay to do that. But when you find yourself doing that more frequently than not, it's a problem, and I honestly think at times and this is just me speaking for myself being an entrepreneur can be lonely at times And thinking you're on that island by yourself is tough. But once you have that momentum behind you to start achieving goals, it really motivated me and brought me over the top to the other pieces of okay, i can do this and this, and now that allows me to not just be in the business but be working on the business to grow.
Speaker 2:Other aspects Yep, and you got to have a goal for that. Even The goal to work on it, not in it, is a big thing And I know that's a little bit of a cliche for people, that phrase but it's really important. This is something that we should be thinking about as business owners and leaders. For me, with my clients, i walk them through 12-week increments, so we focus on one or two goals at a max per 12-week cycle, because the goals should be so big that you don't want to focus on more than two things at a time. Now you're doing all the other stuff The whirlwind of business and life is still happening but there's two areas. They could be professional, but there's two areas that you're really focused on at max that you put 20% of your effort into.
Speaker 2:And I always talk to my clients about okay, let's say you work 60 hours a week Most entrepreneurs are around that range And then, as they get better and better, they're going to shrink it. But let's just say 60. What's 20% of 60? Right, what is that? one point What's the math? And that's like two and a half. What's the math? I can't do the math.
Speaker 1:It's about two and some change. Yeah, two.
Speaker 2:Are you spending that much time focused on your top goals? That's the point, right. Create the time in your week, every single week, to spend that 20% of your time on your top goals in a 60-hour work week. If you do that, it's going to be it's 12 hours, right. So it's 12 hours in a week. You're going to knock things out of the park. But if you don't, the likelihood is a lot less People catching that and starting to ride that wave is really helpful for them. They realize the effort they need to put into their top priorities requires that much focus, especially when you, when I, work with them to get it right, getting right goal in mind, because you could focus on something for 12 hours every week for 12 weeks and you've wasted 144 hours of your life on the wrong goal. Yeah, you're barking up the wrong tree and that's a problem. So you got to get the goal right up front.
Speaker 1:It sounds like from what you said earlier, a lot of them don't have systems in place, so does that mean they don't have any type of direction for the business? So I'm guessing, do they have any type of revenue models or any type of mission statements or anything to that extent that they can build these off of? It's a mixed bag.
Speaker 2:There's. There's a generally, there's a generic picture of where they want to go. Some people are way more dialed, and that's fantastic. And then there's also this misunderstanding of okay, what's going on with my cashflow? What's going on with my savings? Most people that I talk to they don't even have a savings account for their business. They're not even setting aside monthly money for their business, and there's a theory there should be five different accounts and all that kind of stuff And that's great.
Speaker 2:But if you don't even have money set aside for three months worth of expenses in your business, you're going to be in trouble because the economy is fluctuates, let's say yes. So that's really interesting to me. That's a thing for people to learn. But so those two things there's the people side, which is that what are you passionate about? What do you want to take? this business that excites you, which has all kinds of systems and logistics to it as well, but it's that heart part of it, right. And then there's the financial part of it. What are you doing to prepare yourself for the future in your business and for purchasing certain things that you need for your business and being able to do that?
Speaker 1:So it sounds like you are doing an all-encompassing review of their business, but it sounds like it starts with them and then you're going overall with the business. Is that correct?
Speaker 2:Yeah, i do a personal evaluation or a behavioral assessment with them the two I mentioned and then I also do a business evaluation. that's eight different parts of your business. We do a deep dive on those and we figure out, okay, what's going on here on the leadership side and what work could be done there and then what work can be done on the business side. And I don't dictate what needs to get done, because it's not my business, but I help them figure out the right focus so that when they put that effort, that 150 roughly hours, into it in a 12-week period, they get the return on those hours.
Speaker 1:So would you? I guess this is going down another path, but I'm going to ask the question. The other thing that I see in this space when it comes to small business owners right now, baby Boomers are retiring at an all-time high And a lot of them and I say a lot of them, 12 and a half million or 13 million the last time I looked a couple of weeks ago do not have a succession plan, so they have businesses that are either going to sell, close or just let go. Yeah, how many of those clients are you? Do you interact with any of those type of clients?
Speaker 2:I don't. I work with people that are farther along in their businesses for sure, but I have a client right now that he's looking to transition out in 10 years, and so I connected them with somebody that I know that's been doing that for 40 years. So that's not a fit for sure. I'd much rather get them to the right people for that purpose.
Speaker 1:Awesome Because there's just more and more of that going on, and the best way to describe it is I like boring businesses. I'm in real estate, i do real estate development, but I also like boring businesses like HVAC and plumbing, car washes, laundry, mats, that type of stuff. And you'd be amazed I'm out here in Phoenix and you'd be amazed how many people I can connect with that are baby boomers, are pretty close to that that don't have a succession plan. It's right now and this is not scientific, it's just off top of my head One out of three people I meet do not have a succession plan.
Speaker 1:It's sad because a lot of these businesses will go away and they've worked in their businesses for 15, 20 years and there's nothing to be shown after that It's gone. So I'm thinking for myself how do we work with these individuals to find either a way for them to sell their business or, if it's a business that's an ancillary business that works wealth with ours, how do I integrate it and figure out how to do that? So I've been on that for about six or nine months and it's been a struggle for sure, but we'll figure it out and see where it goes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know what we'reelt at, but not come a lot of risk and all that. One of the big lessons that I got from the very beginning of opening this business was you should run a business like you're going to sell it. This type of business that I have as a coaching business, since I'm the product or the service or however you want to put it it's difficult to replicate me in my business, but I'm still trying to run it as if someday I can sell it. Whether I sell it or not someday, i don't know, but there's parts and components that I'm building that become assets that I'm hoping to be able to sell right, even if it's just IP. I want to be able to sell that at some point so that somebody else can buy into it, get certified through my framework, those types of things, and then people can move forward using blue.
Speaker 2:As business owners, we do need to think that way. What can I do in my business to make it sellable? How am I running this business today, even if I'm one year in or 20 years in, to make it sellable? Because if you're not thinking that way, you're not chunking up enough in terms of the way you look at your business. The beauty of running it that way is you see all kinds of really neat opportunities because you're thinking a little bit. You're obviously thinking big picture, but you're thinking out of the box too, as you consider what's possible with your business, because you're trying to make it attractive to someone to come and buy it. That adjusts your marketing, that adjusts your meetings, that adjusts the conversations you have with the people on your team.
Speaker 1:How involved are you with your clients on that aspect, on the selling part or all the things that you As in chunking it up and saying, okay, i need to look big picture and working myself to that point of selling it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, depending on where they are. If I'm working with a smile, because I really am enjoying this couple that I'm working with they run a carpet cleaning business. Oh, cool, they're in their mid-50s and they want to be done in five years. Nice, they're talking about everything surrounding them that would make it possible for them to retire. For the most part, the way that helped them get there because they're really dialed, which is really great. But they've been dialing it in more and it's been systems. To make your business sellable. You need great systems so the system can replace you or you put someone else in place of you to run those systems and you can get all the way Go have fun on vacation or take Fridays off or whatever you want to do. That fits you. But that's the primary tool that I'm using with my clients when they're transitioning or wanting to transition towards. That is, help them build great, robust systems that are there's automations, there's placing people in terms of they get out of the way so other people can step in those types of things.
Speaker 1:Are they wanting to transition out to sell or transition where they're just not on a daily basis?
Speaker 2:Yeah, for the clients that are at that stage that I'm working with, they're wanting less time in the business so they have more freedom to enjoy the fruits of their labor, to be with their kids, to travel with their spouse, those types of things. They still want to do the work of the business, but they want to be able to take a few days off. I'll give you another example. I'm working with a lady that she runs a school, or two schools, and we've been working together for a while, and when we first started, her team was a RAC some bad apples and then she didn't have very good systems in place, and so even for the good employees, they didn't know exactly what the parameters were of what was expected because there wasn't good systems.
Speaker 2:We got rid of the bad apples, brought in some good apples, fixed the systems, and she's on a 10-day vacation right now. She was planning on. she was debating whether she was going to bring her laptop or not. She was so free that she didn't even need to bring her laptop out of country. It's beautiful, right? That's the type of thing that a lot of people want, and when you get the right systems and people in place, you can do it.
Speaker 1:Is that her first vacation she's ever taken?
Speaker 2:No, but it's definitely the most free one in terms of her mind about it. She's the most free and at least stressed, and at least in the time that I've had with her.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. That's got to be very rewarding and fulfilling for you. Yep, 100%, yeah, awesome. In your description that I read out early in the beginning of the podcast, you talk about dads and moms. Talk a little bit about that and what motivates you there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, i recently had to rebrand from a different brand to Blue, and Blue is related to my Blue Color background. It also is obviously the acronym and all those things. As I reflected on past brand and looked at the people I worked with, i went that's really interesting. The things that I'm the most successful with have led me into their personal life, at least a little bit. I definitely coach their business and help them very specifically with whatever's going on there everything we've talked about. Then also they tell me a little bit about what's going on with them as it comes to, maybe, their marriage.
Speaker 2:I'm not a marriage counselor, but we'll have a conversation about how they're leading in their kids or what's going on in their home. We'll talk about their physical health and we'll talk about what's going on with them as it relates to what they want to see financially in their personal life. When I did that with them, every one of those businesses grew way better than the ones that I didn't do that with. There was growth in any case, but with those when they let me in like that, because they got more real and the fears became more exposed and the limitations and the strengths all that the real person started to show up in the calls much more fully. Then we're getting a 2X, 3x and 10X return, and those are beautiful returns. Who doesn't want a 2X?
Speaker 1:return Exactly Who doesn't? That's wonderful. Could you talk about some of those things that actually started showing up after that started happening when you connected with them on that level?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we just wrapped up. but I have a client that does landscaping and handyman work. When we started he was living in this run down rental space and he was working from that rental space and everybody would come there to start the day and he was nervous or concerned, let's say, about the business was going. He had a big vision and great hope that things were to be successful, but he was getting over 100 phone calls a day from staff and clients, and just so many phone calls. Things were stressed He had just had a kid. It was a mess And over the eight months we worked together He was able to earn enough income to move into a new home not to buy a home, but to move into a nice rental, to get a shop for the team so that they can meet at the shop And then he meets or he works at a separate office space.
Speaker 2:So he doesn't work from home anymore, which is really good for his business. The business revenue has, if I remember the numbers correctly, it's at least 70% higher than we started. I want to say double, but that sounds too easy. I just said, oh, it's double, it's at least 70% higher. And he's looking to open a franchise down like not, he doesn't own franchises but he's looking to open another location south of the county that we're in because it's just rocking and rolling. What happened is I was able to dive in with him about what's going on with his home situation and having a kid and the stressors of that, and then combine that with the system's improvement and employee improvement and all that stuff. You get this beautiful synergy of results from that.
Speaker 1:When you're talking about systems, can you give some examples of systems that you worked on with him and without giving out any secret sauce or whatever, just high level?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, for example, where all this stuff, where all the stuff is for his business, the physical equipment and have an inventory of that, some systems as it relates to the way that he manages his day with his own to-do list and calendar, creating a better system for himself in that regard. And then recently I did a workshop with him on meetings how to conduct a really high quality meeting that gets results every single time, and so that's another system, because meetings are systems. If you don't do them well, that's a really big issue. And people death by meeting is Yes, everybody knows that. So those are three examples.
Speaker 1:Interesting, so moved his office out of his rental, put it in a separate space and that really gives him some separation from the standpoint of your clients. Are you just working with clients locally or are you nationwide?
Speaker 2:No, i'm nationwide. Yeah, i'm working with people all over. Actually, where's the far I got to work with this lady? It was just one call, but I'm going to take credit for it. Darn it, she's in New Zealand.
Speaker 1:So that was pretty cool.
Speaker 2:New Zealand That's the farthest for me, so otherwise it's continental US pretty much.
Speaker 1:Okay, that must have been a huge time zone difference.
Speaker 2:It was Yeah.
Speaker 1:Pacific time zone. Oh, that's got to be struggle Before we wrap up and we're going to bring this in what could be two things that the listeners could take away from our conversation today with you on their businesses if they're in this type of situation today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, i would say. Number one is if you have employees, study your people. Know your people because within them is some powerful innovations, some creativity, some insights that are just remarkable, regardless of what position they're in the business. Give them the space to be able to speak, which is really the second one. So, combine, know your people, study them, like what are their quirks, what do they like, what are they not like, what are their strengths, limitations, all that stuff and really know them deeply in that way. And then, number two, ask them. Ask them questions, open ended questions about what their insights are about the business, about their specific job role. Be vulnerable and humble enough to accept that feedback, even if it's directly about you and it's not so great.
Speaker 1:All right. Oh, vulnerable is big man. That's huge. You got to swallow your pride in here that it's tough.
Speaker 2:So I want to offer one question that's to make it super practical here, one question that you can ask and this works in the home as well which is what do you think? Four words, what do you think? That's it. They come to you with a problem and you were superheroes. We pull out the S on our tests and we're like I've got the answers. Here's 12 solutions And no. Shut up and ask them what do you think? And you'd be shocked at how the problems that they bring to you adjust. They're going to be bigger, they're going to be better problems, they're going to be problems that require deep thinking, and that's the type of thinking you want your employees to do, and that's the type of thinking that you should be doing on your business. So that question really opens that door and if you study them, it's easy to know how to ask that question and respond to them in a way that they will trust you to actually tell you the truth of what they think. That's why those two need to go together.
Speaker 1:I like that. That's great, great tip, best place someone can reach out to you and work with you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Go to blueshirtcoachingcom and I do free consults and have a conversation and get to know you and what you're about. And then I have a dads and business group on Alignable. That just started last week. That's starting to grow. So if you want to be a part of the community of dads that are in business to learn from each other, excuse me, to learn from one another and grow. That's another place that you can meet me and connect Awesome.
Speaker 1:We'll put the links in the show notes so everyone can get ahold of you. But, sir, thank you very much for coming on the show and the conversation was great and you've got some great insights and what you're doing to help small business owners and entrepreneurs is lasting, because we all need it. Thank you, ryan. I appreciate the opportunity, for sure. Not a problem. Thanks everyone.
